GOVERNMENT
These projects protect the parklands owned by the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection and the investment
the state has in these lands. The overall benefits were to
create wetlands adjacent to the river and Savannas Preserve
State Park, remove invasive vegetation, increase wildlife
habitat and wetland connectivity and ensure Platt’s Creek
remains as public conservation.
Regulatory water quality improvements were facilitated in
cooperation with St. Lucie County. The $2.5 million project
was completed in the summer of 2015 as part of the overall
mitigation of approximately 10 acres of wetlands in the
Crosstown Parkway Extension Project.
The Platt’s Creek Mitigation Bank is a 102-acre parcel of decommissioned
grove lands turned restoration area, designed
for stormwater retention and treating runoff from a 1,000-acre
drainage basin, reducing freshwater flow into the Indian
River Lagoon and improving the watershed by allowing the
natural processes to remove thousands of pounds of nitrogen
and phosphorus annually that otherwise dump into the
North Fork.
RECREATIONAL AMENITIES
Experiencing the city’s natural surroundings includes its
primary waterway. The new bridge has the potential to become
a destination to walk, jog, power cycle, sightsee, canoe,
kayak or fish. A linear canoe launch will be under the bridge
at Coral Reef Drive and will include a small parking area.
Because of its built-in architectural design features,
aesthetic components and towering, site-specific Guy Harvey
artwork, the structure is more than a bridge. It could lead
the way as a signature showpiece toward a unified identity
for the city. Monuments with brushed stainless steel fish
sculptures mounted atop will accent the stepped landscape
design below.
Five years in the making, funded primarily by the city and
overseen by St. Lucie County’s Water Quality Division, the
county has plans that include passive recreational amenities
such as educational signs, a canoe launch, covered picnic
tables and hiking trails.
The city will use credits associated with half of the site as
regulatory wetland mitigation required for the Crosstown
project. The County will bank the remaining credits for future
wetland mitigation.
With the potential of becoming a Great Florida Birding
Trail site, bird watchers will find that the effort restored the
habitat of a variety of native water fowl, attracting shore and
wading birds. County biologists have documented nesting
black-necked stilts while a host of bird species can be spotted
among the wildlife blinds.
Sedimentation was removed from Evans Creek and two oxbows
of the river, reconnecting nearly 30 acres of poor quality
floodplains. These projects will filter pollutants, improve
areas of open water and reconnect degraded wetlands back to
flows of the North Fork.
EASY ACCESS TO LAUNCH
The relocated Evans Creek canoe launch allows visitors
to enjoy Savannas Preserve State Park and the North Fork
up close. Located between Walton Road and Village Green
Drive, to the west of U.S.1, it includes a paved access road
leading to a parking area and canoe launch that is Americans
with Disabilities Act compliant. No longer will it be necessary >>
44 Port St. Lucie Magazine
CROSSTOWN EXTENSION WEBSITE
The highly contentious superstreet is the first to be implemented in a transportation project in the state. Project managers advise it is much safer and eliminates
the need to widen Floresta Drive to a four-lane intersection.