Port St. Lucie residents will eventually be able to drive to South Hutchinson Island beaches without leaving the city, Mayor Greg Oravec predicted Monday.
Interstate 95 is destined to be in the center of Port St. Lucie in about three decades when several major development projects are built out to Rangeline Road, Oravec predicted.
And the city’s long-awaited downtown entertainment district will be developed in the Tradition Commerce Center, not City Center, Oravec said.
Those were among the highlights of Oravec’s annual “State of the City” address to a City Council Chamber packed with government officials, business leaders and civic activists.
Oravec became emotional when recalling former longtime Mayor Robert Minsky – who had strongly supported Oravec’s leadership – died in November.
Among the city’s accomplishments in 2018 were reducing the crime rate, lowering the property tax rate by a dime, cutting the city’s debt and championing a half-percent sales tax increase for roads, sidewalks and storm sewers, Oravec said.
“We actually have less crime today, actual numbers of crimes, than we did in 2001,” Oravec noted.
The tax hike will provide the city about $88 million to spend in the next decade on much-needed road and sidewalk projects.
“The voters’ response in November delivered one of our greatest victories,” Oravec said. He also credited the St. Lucie County government for undertaking the initiative.
The city also obtained a $3 million state grant for Tradition Commerce Center road construction, assumed ownership of the 1,163-acre commerce center and facilitated Mattamy Homes’ purchase of 1,941 nearby acres, Oravec said.
In addition, GL Homes started work on the 11,700-home Riverland project west of Tradition.
The city issued a total of 1,778 single-family house permits in 2018, the most since the Great Recession, Oravec said.
But that still pales compared to the 6,300 single-family house permits issued in 2006 at the peak of the boom.
The completion of the Crosstown Parkway this fall will conclude a four-decade effort to develop a new east-west thoroughfare to ease congestion on Port St. Lucie and St. Lucie West boulevards, Oravec said.
The traffic congestion is one of the downsides of growth, Oravec said.
The opening of Crosstown Parkway will be part of the beautification efforts this year along U.S. 1, Oravec said.
Finding a buyer for 21-acres of federally held land at City Center is another major goal for 2019, Oravec said.
The city should also start work developing the long-awaited bridge from the city to South Hutchinson Island beaches, Oravec said.
The project was first pitched in the 1980s as the Palmer Expressway and envisioned linking I-95 to the beaches.
It later evolved into the Walton Road Bridge and was being developed by the St. Lucie County Bridge and Expressway Authority.
Oravec said he wants to restart the initiative. “Ninety-four percent of our citizens want Crosstown Parkway to go all the way to Hutchinson Island,” Oravec said. “Let’s start the process and make sure a city of ultimately 400,000 has a way to enjoy its natural resources and what makes Florida special.”
