PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — St. Lucie County is experiencing explosive growth, and now there is a growing debate about more expansion west of Interstate 95.
"[This property has] been in our family since the 1930s, 1920s," Mike McCarty of the McCarty Ranch said as he showed WPTV his land. "We've been in St. Lucie County since the 1880s."
McCarty looked back on life in western St. Lucie County.
"I think about how life slows down, and you can leave everything in town," he said. "Come out here and remember how the old days were."
He said he keeps his eyes on the horizon.
"We find ourselves in a turf war," McCarty said.
He's going back and forth on the new, but age-old question, of managing growth. The question is how do you do that in Port St. Lucie if you don't go west?
"This is true," he said. "You have to do it responsibly, transition," McCarty said. "As you transition west from the city, you need to take into consideration larger, open spaces … The proposed development would back up to the very perimeter of our ranch and will have a significant impact on our agricultural way of life."
McCarty is referring to Oak Ridge Ranches, a proposed 3,000-plus acre project, that could be decades away, located west of Range Line Road and Glades Cut Off Road. The proposal calls for more than 9,000 residential units, commercial, schools and parks. Kolter Homes, the builder, is also behind the nearby PGA Verano area.
"It's sprawl at its best, and it's a phenomenon that we are experiencing across the state," McCarty said. "The pressure of urbanization into agricultural areas, and this is our heritage. We have been here for 150 years. It's sad to think that this state will be a concrete juggle with zero lot line housing."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population in St. Lucie County grew by 4.4% between April 2020 and July 2021. In Port St. Lucie, it grew by 6.2%.
"I mean, we moved down here, so we can't say to anybody else, 'Don't come here,'" resident Patricia Murphy said. "Florida is growing by leaps and bounds, and the Port St. Lucie area is huge."
Murphy and her husband, Terry, stopped at a vegetable stand near the proposed project on Friday.
"A lot of people are like, 'How can we adjust to all this population coming into us?" she said. "If it's a 25-year thing, we won't be around to see it."
The changing landscape may take time.
"Just a lot of growth, sit back and wonder where is it going to go," Terry Murphy said.
Regardless if the project is built, the question of how to grow will always live on.
"We truly find our way of life threatened by development and corporate greed," McCarty said. "[We are] trying to be stewards of the land, maintain and respect it, as well as carry forth our heritage."