Ask Catie: What’s going on with the empty lot on Floresta Drive and Port St. Lucie Boulevard? – TCPalm

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Candice James lives within walking distance of the Floresta Drive and Port St. Lucie Boulevard intersection.

As James passed by the empty lot on the northeast corner where the roads met, she was puzzled by the changing landscape.

The City of Port St. Lucie had cleared out the overgrown trees and planted new ones a few years back. Recently, the lot was cleared out again a waste of tax money, James thought, when one adds up the cost of materials, machinery and manpower required.

So, what's going on?

Renovating the empty lot has long been in the works for 15 years now as part of theFloresta Drive Improvement project, said city spokesperson Sarah Prohaska.

As part of the Floresta Drive Improvement project. the City of Port St. Lucie is renovating a cleared lot on the corner of Floresta Drive and Port St. Lucie Boulevard to use as a stormwater treatment area.(Photo: CONTRIBUTED BY SARAH PROHASKA)

Three lots on the northeast corner were acquired by the city in 2005 to eventually be used as a stormwater treatment area, Prohaska said, but the money to do so didn't become available for a long time.

In 2017, the city used leftover funds to improve the overall landscape of the area, clearing out the lot and planting new foliage, Prohaska said. Contractors used guidance from a 2006 master plan when designing the new landscape to minimizefuture removal.

Theone-half cent sales tax approved by Port St. Lucie residents in the 2018 election atax increase from 6.5%to 7% to pay for building more sidewalks, improving roads and water-quality projects kickstarted the Floresta Drive Improvement project again, Prohaska said.

Design plans for Phase 1were completed this past spring, she added, and the landscape of the northeast lot had to be revisited.

The new design required alarger stormwater treatment area, or manmade pond, than anticipatedto improve water quality prior to discharging to the North Fork of the St. Lucie River, Prohaska said.

So, the city had to remove the vegetation planted in 2017.

"It was definitely not the citys intent to have to remove the recently planted trees, but the new design implemented to improve water quality required it," she said.

Contractors are trying to save as much of the landscape as possible, Prohaska added, relocating the trees that can't be saved within the Floresta Drive Improvement project.

The city plans to plant new foliage on the lot, install afountain in the middle anddecorative walls on the north and east sides of the pond, she said.

A groundbreaking ceremony to commence Phase 1 was held on Sept. 14, and the entire project's timeline can be found atcityofpsl.com/floresta.

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Catie Wegman is a community reporter who also produces "Ask Catie," an occasional feature to find answers to your burning questions about anything and everything the more bizarre the better.Support her work with a TCPalm subscription.Contact her at catie.wegman@tcpalm.com or 772-221-4211 and follow her @Catie_Wegman on Twitter and @catiewegman1 on Facebook.

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Ask Catie: What's going on with the empty lot on Floresta Drive and Port St. Lucie Boulevard? - TCPalm