Big Development coming to St Lucie and Martin

Big Development coming to St Lucie and Martin

The development process for Knight Kiplinger’s Newfield community made progress with the County Commission Tuesday, but it is still expected to take 20 years to complete.  

Newfield, formerly known as Pineland Prairie, will consist of 4,200 homes and Palm City’s first official downtown. The 3,411-acre project, with 70% preserved in open space, is expected to break ground in 2021 as approvals continue to come before the commission.

A development agreement, a master site plan and a petition to establish Newfield development district were passed Tuesday, each by a 4-1 vote, Commissioner Sarah Heard the lone dissenter. No residents voiced concerns during public comment. 

An ambitious plan for development of Southern Grove could bring the city  designated areas for offices, hotels, industrial warehouses, shops, manufacturing-and-distribution centers and multi-family homes.

In the process, Port St. Lucie could create an engine for job creation and an improved transportation network.

The City Council was to vote Monday on a master plan for 1,220 acres in Southern Grove.

A timeline for Southern Grove development has not been released.

In 2018, the city bought 1,183 acres in Southern Grove from Tradition Land Company after it announced plans to bail out on $5.4 million it owed in property taxes and assessments.

Since then, the city has been working with both the public and the private-sector to sell the land acres in Southern Grove for development, spurring development and getting out from under its debt. 

The latest of those efforts include bringing FedEx to Southern Grove to develop a $44 million, 245,000-square-foot regional sorting center.

While the Port St. Lucie’s population increased 35% from 2013 to 2017, the number of residents who work outside the city increased 41%, according to the 235-page master plan draft.

Approving the master plan, the city hopes, will continue to create jobs and bring down that percentage.

To execute its master plan — deciding what to develop and where — the city would establish three sub-districts within Southern Grove: a workplace district, a bio-health district and a town center district.

Port St. Lucie’s job-to-population ratio of 0.24 — meaning there are roughly 24 jobs per every 100 residents — is below St. Lucie County’s 0.29 ratio, and well below the 0.46 of neighboring Martin County.

There’s not yet an estimate of how many jobs would be created in the workplace district.

By focusing on job creation within the workplace district, the city hopes to become an employment importer rather than exporter.

TreasureCoast

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