FORT PIERCE \u2013 A development that started two years ago as a townhome proposal in unincorporated St. Lucie County has taken several turns on its way to approval. On Dec. 1, Fort Pierce commissioners signed off on its latest \u2014 and final \u2014 form: a single-family neighborhood planned for an 11.5-acre Sunrise Boulevard property the city annexed to host the project.<\/p>\n
The applicant\u2019s Vero Beach-based engineer of record, Blaine Berkstresser, provided commissioners the historical context for the development initially proposed by Dt Ventures 1 LLC.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn December 2023, we met with city staff to discuss a potential townhome project located in unincorporated St. Lucie County,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter meeting with staff, it was suggested this area would be better suited for single family. We updated our site plan for 52 single-family [units], applied for annexation in February 2024 and submitted our site plan in April of 2024. We went through different departments and presented to the Planning Board in May 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though Berkstresser and his client tweaked their plans to please the Commission and its advisory board at almost every turn, they still encountered speed bumps with the city\u2019s revamping of its planned development process and the Planning Board\u2019s aversion to community school bus stops on thoroughfares after a student was struck and killed by a car on Oleander Avenue in 2021. Although the Planning Board initially approved the proposal last July, the City Commission voted to table it later the same month in search of site plan changes. By the time advisory board members saw it again in September, they rejected it because the bus stop was then located on Sunrise Boulevard instead of the community\u2019s entryway.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we met with staff, commissioners and talked with some of the residents,\u201d Berkstresser explained. \u201cThe Planning Board wanted us to address the bus stop. We updated our plans and went back in October to the Planning Board. Our updated site plan looks drastically different than what we presented to the Commission in July. As was stated, we have now incorporated an internal loop system [and] eliminated two lots in order to reduce the density.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his prior presentation, Planning Director Kevin Freeman explained how the School District itself nearly tanked the approval at the end with its disapproval of the interior school bus turnaround and exit onto Sunrise Boulevard. That shocked and dismayed some Planning Board members when they realized that St. Lucie Schools officials were not as adverse to exterior bus stops as they were and were proposing a bus stop north of the entrance on Sunrise Boulevard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did receive a subsequent email dated Oct. 24,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe School District stated after reviewing the attachments that the bus will run over the curbs when navigating the loop. There was a recommendation to install a bus shelter on Sunrise and create a small parking area instead of a loop.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sent the applicant and his engineer back to the drawing board one final time, which resulted in a design satisfactory to all parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe present site plan incorporates the original Planning Board and School District recommendations,\u201d Freeman concluded. \u201cThe applicant increased the radii of the loop not long before this presentation, not affected substantially to what you see presented tonight. There will need to be very small amendments to that site plan prior to second reading.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his subsequent presentation, Berkstresser briefly touched on that last-minute change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe School District was nervous about the bus leaving and making a right out of this neighborhood,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I told them I would update the plan to increase this radius so we could show the bus would have no issue making this turn out of the property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berkstresser primarily focused on the benefits of the project to the city and surrounding area, which is a hodgepodge of adjacent city and county properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cImproved amenities were brought up in the Planning Board,\u201d he recalled. \u201cOriginally we were showing a clubhouse and a pool area in the middle of the development. Through some redesign, we\u2019ve added a tot-lot and a closed-in dog park. We\u2019re also going to have a walking path around these dry ponds. One of the things we heard from the neighbors and the Planning Board was about existing trees on the site. Typically we don\u2019t do tree mitigations at this stage, but we took a look at it, and this plan represents the trees that we will either be saving or relocating.\u201d<\/p>\n
After subsequently describing the project\u2019s enhanced landscape buffering \u2013 which put 51 feet between the homes and the closest residence to the south \u2013 the engineer of record highlighted a benefit to the surrounding neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cCode only requires us to put sidewalk along our frontage,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re proposing to run an additional 1,031 feet of sidewalk all the way to the intersection of Bell Avenue. We think it might be beneficial to the neighbors because this will enable them to use our bus stop. There\u2019s not a lot of good areas for kids to wait, [so] they could walk to our stop or parents could even drop kids off.\u201d<\/p>\n
A final benefit coordinated with the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority will even help the environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be extending almost 1,300 linear feet of four-inch force main to our property line,\u201d Berkstresser concluded. \u201cAll of our existing neighbors in this area are on septic. This force main allows for future connections, and I believe FPUA is trying to run sewer so those people can convert from septic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most commissioner questions afterward revolved around the dog park \u2013 which will be open to the public via an external gate and small parking area \u2013 and tweaks to the off-road bus loop. The latter particularly pleased Commissioner Michael Broderick.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that resolves that issue instead of trying to shift us back out onto Sunrise, which I think is clearly dangerous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mayor Linda Hudson agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate the additional work you did on it,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is kind of the way it should happen, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City Commission then voted unanimously to approve the request on first reading. The second reading had not been scheduled at press time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 A development that started two years ago as a townhome proposal in unincorporated St. Lucie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-75817","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","11":"tag-st_lucie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75817","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=75817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}