STUART – The City’s Community Redevelopment Board voted Sept. 1 to recommend the Community Redevelopment Agency and the City Commission approve a tentative $16 million capital improvement plan budget for Fiscal Year 2027.

Community Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Pinal Gandhi-Savdas introduced the agenda item that evening on the proposed 2027 CIP and CRA budget.

“I’ll provide an overview of the projected revenues, expenses and key projects included in the proposed budget,” she said while referring to a graph depicting how tax increment funding is figured within the community redevelopment area. “This shows you the base value of the CRA – $299 million – when the CRA was created. The current taxable value is $995 million, so the difference is $696 million, which is the increment value. We take that value and apply the city’s 5.0 millage rate and the county’s millage rate. The CRA General Fund revenue is $3.3 million and the county payment to the CRA is $5.5 million, with a total contribution of $8.8 million.”

Gandhi-Savdas described other funds that add to next year’s proposed budget, including $6.8 million in grants, $35,000 in interest revenue, $2,700 from the CRA’s Way Find Signage revenue and a CRA Fund Balance of $425,000. There’s also intergovernmental transfer of about $1.53 million, which makes up about 12 percent of the CRA budget. She also enumerated $12.1 million in expenses for the previously approved projects now incorporated into the 2027 CIP.

“These are the categories of different projects and expenses,” she explained. “Infrastructure & Capital Projects makes up about 70 percent at $8.5 million. This includes Guy Davis Park; Stypmann drainage and sidewalk improvements; Dixie Highway improvements; Flagler Park parking; and the Tree Canopy Installation Program.”

Gandhi-Savdas also provided project details, beginning with the undergrounding of utilities along Southwest Seminole, Osceola Street, Colorado Avenue and St. Lucie Avenue in the city’s historic district. That $8.7 million project was begun in 2025 and is now slated for completion next summer.

“We recently just completed the landscaping in August,” she said. “We also fulfilled the grant obligation and requested reimbursement for the paver system, which is about $352,000. We expect to get that in Fiscal Year 2027. The transformers are expected to be energized by [this] September, and then connection to the businesses is anticipated to be completed by the end of this year. We do plan to restore the sidewalk and any asphalt patching during the off season before November. The pole removal will happen between January and April 2027.”

The $10.29 million, grant-funded Project L.I.F.T. [Life Skills, Industry Readiness, Fitness, and Technology/Training] is also currently underway at 710 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. That project required no matching city or CRA funds, and the CRA has already received about $6.5 million in reimbursement for the acquisition, engineering, administration, demo and new construction of the facility aimed at improving the lives of at-risk teens and young adults.

“We expect to receive the remaining reimbursement in 2027 once we close out the grant,” Gandhi-Savdas explained. “The Fiscal 2027 Budget includes $1 million to appropriate for any eligible invoices we will be getting after September when the grant period ends. The grant will be closed out approximately two months after Sept. 30.”

The budget also includes $10.7 million for the construction of new facilities at Guy Davis Community Park. Those include multipurpose sports fields, linear trails, picnic areas, shaded pavilions, a multipurpose stage area, central event lawn, fitness trail loop with exercise equipment and much more. The City Commission amended the project to include a skatepark in October 2024 with a 3-2 vote that has since become a controversy due to East Stuart opposition. That prompted Gandhi-Savdas to suggest a temporary compromise since the design of the contested park component has already been completed.

“I did reach out to the consultant, and the best option is to go out for bid with the base plan to include the skatepark and also a separate plan without the skatepark so that we can get a bid for both plans and give the Board an option,” she continued. “Once we go out for bid, I will bring that to the CRA Board.”

She concluded her presentation describing the remaining projects on drainage and sidewalk improvements planned for Southeast Dixie Highway, improvements at Flagler Park, preliminary work for the city’s Tree Infill Program and improvement to the Downtown Stuart docking facility. Immediately afterward, Board Member Jeff Manera touched on the Guy Davis Park controversy.

“Was it primarily the cost, or was it the use was better utilized for other things and other people?” he asked.

“There’s a group of skateboarders that wants the skateboard park,” Gandhi-Savdas replied. “Then we’ve heard from the East Stuart community that they don’t want it. There’s a conflict between groups, and the Commission thinks the majority don’t want the skatepark. Based on that, they’ve given direction to staff to remove it. Staff is recommending we go out for bids since we’re already at 100 percent design and then the Board can decide whether to keep it or not.”

“What are the alternate plans for the space?: Manera prodded.

“It would just be green space,” Gandhi-Savdas explained. “In the future if we want to do a skatepark, then we have the space already.”

Board Member Manera also wanted specifics on the $425,000 downtown dock improvements being funded by a Florida Inland Navigation District Grant.

“There’s only 13 existing [boat slips] and what they’re showing there is going to incorporate 30 spaces,” he said looking for affirmation. “Is that new dock going to be pyloned-in or is it going to floating?”

Stuart Public Works Director Milton Leggett came to the podium to answer that inquiry.

“ Correct,” ,” he responded to the number of total slips. “The L-shaped section will be removed. It’s going to be pyloned-in, and they are setting the pyles as we speak.”

Board Member Christina Vogl, in turn, inquired about the skatepark controversy.

“Was there any pushback from the immediate neighbors?” she asked. “I know it does back up to a neighborhood right there.”

One of her fellow Board members, Frederick James, helped answer that question.

“There was some that felt they didn’t need a skatepark there,” he said. “They would like the land to be transformed into basketball goals and that type of athletic fields and they wanted more bathrooms.”

The Stuart CRB then voted unanimously to recommend approval of the 2027 Budget and CIP. The CRA was scheduled at press time to vote on the budget at 3 p.m. Sept. 14, followed by a special City Commission meeting that day to make the final vote on the city’s 2026/2027 budget, which includes the CRA budget.