PSL to look at Becker Road project

By CHRIS YOUNG April 23, 2006
PORT ST. LUCIE — City Council members will examine the first step in transforming Becker Road from a two-lane road to a four-lane thoroughfare at Monday's regular council meeting.
They will consider approving a plan mapping how existing side streets will intersect with Becker as well as targeting 70 empty lots and one lot with a house on it for drainage ponds.

"It's a beginning," Councilman Jack Kelly said. "I'd like to see it move quicker."
The city won't need to buy property along Becker Road for the four-lane expansion, and could work around the occupied lot if the owner refused to sell, City Manager Don Cooper said.
After approval Monday, the city can stop any future building on those 71 lots and begin acquiring those properties for the drainage.

The plans for the corridor, which are only about 30 percent complete, include the four-lane road with landscaped medians, a pedestrian walkway on the south side and a bike path on the north side.

Currently, officials aren't looking at incorporating any roundabouts proposed by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, but would install five traffic signals at Hallmark, Savona, Port St. Lucie Boulevard, Darwin, and Kestor.

The plan can include planning council ideas if funding becomes available, but at least it must go forward in order to make good on the annexation agreement the city signed with Core Communities, G.L. Homes, and Ansca Homes, Cooper said. Those developers will pay for the Becker Road expansion from Interstate 95 to Florida's Turnpike.

Cooper said the interchange of Becker Road at the turnpike should be finished by early next year, about the same time construction should begin at Becker Road and I-95.

An amendment to the city's comprehensive plan needs to be finished, which will take at least six months, along with a report detailing plans for the interchange at I-95, which will also take a couple of months, Cooper said.