PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — As St. Lucie County grows to the west of Port St. Lucie, the city is working to mitigate possible impacts.
WPTV reporter Cassandra Garcia asked resident Wanda Richards to describe Port St. Lucie.
Richards said it's an "explosion of homes and people.”
She's among the long-time residents dealing with the impact after years of Port St. Lucie's population boom.
“You have people from all over the country coming to live here, and I just think it came too fast,” said Richards.
“Traffic is crazy now,” added Port St. Lucie resident Compton Bumbury. “Eventually, this becomes like West Palm.”
More growth is on the way just outside western city limits. Upcoming projects include about 10,000 new housing units and industrial growth. In an attempt to get ahead of it, city officials performed a planning and infrastructure study.
“[It] showed that the impacts would be significant in terms of the infrastructure costs and so as you think about more people using our roads then that’s going to mean we’re probably going to have higher maintenance costs,” said Port St. Lucie Public Information Officer Scott Samples.
The study found that roadway improvements are needed to keep up with the development. The study shows those improvements could cost $280 million. That's money the city of Port St. Lucie said is not accounted for in the current budget.
“This worries me because there would be more traffic,” said Bumbury.
The city hopes this study will help them plan for the impact and work with their St. Lucie County neighbors.
“The sooner that we can get in front of that, the better that we can do in terms of planning, making infrastructure accommodations, how do we make sure that we have everything in place, and how do we do it working collectively and collaboratively with all of our neighbors,” explained Samples.
The study looks forward to the year 2045. It will be used to help city officials update the city's comprehensive plan. In the meantime, residents will hold the city to its promises.
“Let’s build what we need to be able to control what we have,” said Richards.