The St. Lucie West Services District Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of about nine acres at the St. Lucie Trail Golf Club.
The purchase – OK’d at the board’s last regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 11 – was part of a long-planned effort to add stormwater drainage at Country Club Estates.
“We know seven out of the nine acres will be (stormwater) lake,” explained Dennis Pickle, the district’s manager and utilities director, after the meeting.
Along with the purchased acres, the seller, CGI St. Lucie, is giving the district 4.4 acres of easement. “You’re going to see close to 10 acres of additional (stormwater) storage,” Pickle said.
What effects that will have is not precisely measured. The 10 acres won’t be all in one place. The acreage will be in a series of contiguous stormwater treatment areas.
The district will have engineering to do, along with getting permits and land-use changes from the City of Port St. Lucie. Some of the water storage will double as aqua ranges for St. Lucie Trail Golf Club, owned by CGI St. Lucie.
Pickle estimated that the additional water storage will add about a 1.5 inches to 2 inches of water drainage through much of Country Club Estates.
“That’s the oldest residential community in St. Lucie West,” Pickle said. “Stormwater criteria was set differently for that community than later ones. That’s why we’ve been interested in creating stormwater storage in there.”
But, the residents of Country Club Estates won’t be the only beneficiaries of the proposed additional stormwater storage.
“It would help … by keeping water from getting on (Southwest Cashmere Boulevard),” Pickle said. “It’s going to help all the communities to the east of (Country Club Estates).”
Additionally, “it would help a little keeping some water off the north side of (Southwest Heatherwood Boulevard) and south side of St. Lucie West Boulevard.”
The district is paying $166,650 for the land. Pickle said engineering and physical work will probably progress over the next two years.
“We anticipate needing close to a $1 million to complete the overall project,” he said.
The district’s last major stormwater projects were Lake Harvey and the related Basin 4E-5 Interconnect. The combined stormwater management projects can move about 5 inches of rainwater off St. Lucie West Boulevard between Cashmere and Southwest Bethany Drive during a 100-year rain event.
Pickle said when Hurricane Florence was heading to the U.S. and no one was certain where it was going to hit, the district breathed a bit easier than it would have without those projects done.
“With four named storms out there, you’re always anxious,” he said. “The system, with the last couple heavy rain events, has been taxed at times. It’s handled it pretty well and handled it as designed.”
At press time, no one at the district is totally relaxed. While Tropical Depression Isaac is too far southeast of Florida to be a realistic danger, tropical storms Joyce and Helene could become threats. “There are some anxious moments anytime there are storms in the Atlantic,” Pickle said.
The district is a Community Development District, which is a hybrid creation of the state Legislature. The districts operate as governmental bodies to deliver some limited municipal services, such as water and sewer.
