PARKS
“Beach LifestyLe ProfessionaL”
18
Work areas have been staked out already and protective temporary fences
erected to keep park-goers and roadwork equipment separated.
in February 2007 the city was finally able to buy the longcoveted
1.87 acres of unkempt weedy land on the south side
of the parking lot with the help of a grant from the Trust for
Public Land. The price was $5,925,000. It may not have been
pretty then, but everyone knew it was going to be a beauty to
brag about. Cleaned and mowed, it did become respectable.
The Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency repaid the Trust
with the help of a grant from the Florida Communities’
Trust “Florida Forever” program for $2,966,734 and FPRA
bond proceeds.
Development plans included a fitness trail, game tables,
a pavilion with benches and a winding pathway. To the
satisfaction of the South Beach Association, the city decided it
would be an adult park without amenities for children since
Jaycee Park not far away was already set up for kids. Since
then the plans have been modified a bit. The fitness trail, for
instance, was dropped.
But before the plan could go any further, a piece of property
on the west side of Jetty Park became available. It had been
the home to Mariner Bay motel and before that to a Days Inn
motel and decades earlier to a Navy base hospital. The owner
wanted to sell the land and demolish the old motel.
Ward and the board halted plans to develop the park and
instead put nearly $1.5 million, including demolition costs
and unpaid property taxes, into buying an acre of the motel
property in 2009. The city also obtained some land that the
county had owned. Finally, the park reached 3.15 acres.
That same year, the FPRA built the 1.3-mile Linear
Park, which stretches from Jetty Park to Mangrove Mattie’s
restaurant and someday may go all the way to Causeway
Park by South Bridge, a distance of 2.5 miles. The sidewalk,
wide enough for walkers and bicyclists, runs right along the
inlet and features benches and a “sitting wall” where strollers
>>
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