Midway cooperation sought in PSL

PORT ST. LUCIE — The City Council decided to work together with St. Lucie County officials on a mutually beneficial road project, against city staff wishes.

The council voted 4-1, with Vice Mayor Jack Kelly against, to hammer out an agreement with the county within 90 days to widen Midway Road west of I-95 to Okeechobee Road, an area that will see tremendous housing growth in coming years.

"This will be our northern entryway into the city," Mayor Patricia Christensen said. "I don't want to see a two-lane rural roadway 10 to 15 years from now."

City Manager Don Cooper recommended the county do the $50 million project, saying the city could not take on the expansion without hiring more staff.

"This will add another project to a very long list (of 18 major road projects)," he said.
Vice Mayor Kelly sided with city staff.

"It's a county road, let the county build it," he said. "I don't know when they (last) built a road in the city."

Engineer Butch Terpening and lawyer Bobby Klein, who represent some of the two dozen-plus developers with a stake in the area, said the developers will pay for designing and expanding the road, a hurricane evacuation route.

A taxing arrangement called a special assessment district would be set up with developers voluntarily joining because they wanted the road expanded for their projects, with funding set up for extra staff, Terpening said after the meeting.

After the expansion, Midway Road would be six lanes from I-95 about a mile west to an unnamed arterial road, then four lanes west to Okeechobee Road, with bike paths, sidewalks, and landscaping throughout.

Klein said it would be "difficult" to work out an agreement with all parties in the 90 days set by Cooper, but council members said that there shouldn't be surprises because city staff had previous meetings with the developers about the plan.

IN OTHER BUSINESS
The City Council:
• Approved 5-0 a site plan for Lowe's at St. Lucie West, to be across the street from Home Depot. Lowe's Senior Site Development Manager Chris Thalmann said he expected the home improvement store to break ground by April or May.
• Discussed possible road names for City Center, with several north-south and east-west streets to be named at the Council retreat at the end of the month.
By CHRIS YOUNG chris.young@scripps.com