{"id":33670,"date":"2025-11-05T01:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T01:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/33670\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T01:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T01:51:07","slug":"residents-in-rio-welcome-waterfront-revival-as-martin-county-approves-mixed-use-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/33670\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents in Rio welcome waterfront revival as Martin County approves mixed-use village"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WPTV is always listening to your concerns over development across our area, but it&#8217;s not often that residents get together to promote added growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In Martin County, a new neighborhood is set to rise in the community of Rio after years of neglect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATCH BELOW: New waterfront village approved in Martin County community of Rio<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Michele Carlucci has been walking her dog Otis past the open plot of land along Dixie Highway in Rio for years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;Quiet, quaint. I go out after 8 p.m., and you don&#8217;t see a soul. It&#8217;s very peaceful,&#8221; Carlucci said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Still, she&#8217;s been hoping for some time that something exciting would come to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;Some shops, maybe a couple of restaurants,&#8221; Carlucci said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On Tuesday, the Martin County Commission approved Rio Marine Village, an amended mixed-use development along the Rio waterfront with apartments, retail and restaurants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Heavily damaged by hurricanes two decades ago, the Rio area was deemed an Opportunity Zone by then-Gov Gov. Rick Scott in 2018 to encourage development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/money\/real-estate-news\/martin-county-commissioners-approve-new-waterfront-development-in-rio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">In 2022,<\/a> WPTV met with JoLynne Jensen at her home in Rio as initial development plans were approved. She was excited then, and is even happier now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">At Tuesday&#8217;s commission meeting, she was among those from the Rio Civic Club speaking in favor of the amended plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;It will be an impetus for development, redevelopment. New businesses moving in, new residences being built,&#8221; said Jensen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Developer Charles Modica told WPTV reporter Jon Shainman that this project was about collaboration, and he didn&#8217;t want a gated community cutting off public access to the natural beauty of the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;(We want to build a) village that they are part of, and the public is part of, to get to the water,&#8221; Modica said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Construction is expected to start in the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WPTV is always listening to your concerns over development across our area, but it&#8217;s not often that residents&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-33670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}