FORT PIERCE – Both the City Commission and the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency board recently ratified an interlocal agreement in separate meetings for their joint collaboration in the funding and logistics for nearly $500,000 in improvements to the Depot Drive parking area downtown.

The FPRA Board – whose members are the city commissioners wearing different hats – first took up the agreement on May 12. Community and Economic Development Director Shyanne Harnage introduced the item that night.

This project has been in discussion for quite some time [and] was actually the subject area for our proposal for the Brightline station behind the Sunrise Theatre,” she said. “Previous to that, our prior city engineer had a preliminary design to improve the parking and access all the way underneath the Citrus [Avenue] bridge and back to the state attorney’s office. What we’re looking at for this interlocal funding agreement is the improvement of this parking area, including additions of a few extra spaces with some reconfiguration. We’re also looking at the installation of pavers [and] pedestrian connectivity. There is no pedestrian connectivity here now – you’re walking along the street to get wherever you want to go. Lighting will also be incorporated into this.”

Board Member Curtis Johnson Jr. expressed satisfaction with the project due to the fact the Florida East Coast Railroad had recently come out against a Brightline train station in Stuart due to its proximity to the U.S. Coast Guard-controlled drawbridge over the St. Lucie River.

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” he said. “In light of recent comments coming out of Stuart, I don’t think this Brightline thing is over. There’s been a number of people obviously that want to know if we’re going to angle for this opportunity again. Who knows what’s going to happen with that.”

Chairwoman Linda Hudson pointed out that improving the parking area would benefit any kind of passenger train service on the site.

“We haven’t given up on any kind of railway,” she said.

“It might end up being Amtrak anyway,” Board Member Chris Dzadovsky chimed in.

The FPRA Board then voted unanimously for approval, and the City Commission took up the same request six days later. After City Clerk Linda Cox read the interlocal agreement resolution into the record on May 18, Commissioner Michael Broderick posed a clarification question with comments.

“Does it mean that the FPRA’s paying for this?” he asked. “There is an agreement in place between the city and the county, and the county’s supposed to be paying 50 percent of these improvements down on the south end of Depot Drive. That was an agreement reached between city management at the time, and so we need to refresh their memories of this. I know we have Commissioner [James] Clasby here. If my memory is correct, the county was enthusiastic about this because of the advantages it would have for courthouse parking and things of this nature.”

“We probably do need a formal way of making sure the county doesn’t have amnesia,” Mayor Hudson responded.

Commissioner Broderick then suggested somebody from either the city manager’s office or the FPRA contact County Administrator George Landry because “he was involved in that discussion.”

“I just think it needs to be refreshed and we need to confirm that this is an agreement,” he insisted. “Having said that, if we can get them in for $250,000 and we’re in for $250,000, that’s a heck of better pill to swallow than half a million.”

For her part, Harnage pointed out that the interlocal agreement before commissioners that night was strictly for the design of the parking lot improvements.

“We will be reaching out to St. Lucie County,” she said. “We thought we’d have the design ready, but they can certainly partake in that as well, and then approach them for the construction costs as we move forward. This is the design interlocal agreement between the city and the FPRA. We’ll be using the city’s Engineering Department to interface with the consultant, but the FPRA will be funding the design.”

When Commissioner Broderick continued emphasizing that Fort Pierce would be asking the county “for a quarter million bucks” and even potentially half of the $120,000 design cost, Commissioner Arnold Gaines – the only attorney in the group – attempted to rein his fellow commissions in.

“I just want to be very careful here,” he said. “I haven’t seen one documentation in black and white of what we’re talking about tonight, so let’s be very careful before we put into the public that the county’s going to be up for this. If for some reason the county says. we didn’t agree to that, we can’t say they did because I haven’t seen any documentation.”

Commissioner Dzadovsky, who spent several terms on the County Commission, also backed a more cautionary posture.

“I was part of that conversation,” he said. “My recollection is it had to do with trying to secure Brightline and get that opportunity. They might say that was associated with that agreement and that process for a Brightline station. I’d reiterate that the courthouse continues to need additional parking, and so it behooves us to secure that with their assistance. I think it would be a good partnership.”

The City Commission then voted unanimously for approval.