Stuart As Elysian Fields

Did the City of Stuart dodge a bullet without any consequences from last year’s Live Local Act?

In brief, the act would have permitted industrial and commercially zoned parcels to be used for high density residential development without a public hearing and would only need an administrative approval. Like everything in hyperbolic Stuart, it seemed as if the world was coming to an end. Now we will never-never know.

SB 328, which was a glitz bill passed this session to correct Live Local, eliminates the opportunity for Stuart ever finding out what development looks like without politics.

And here is why…Stuart is relatively compact in size. One of our defining traits is the location of Witham Field smack dab in the middle of the city. I don’t know if the insertion of the exception outlined in the next paragraph was due to the city’s lobbyist or state representatives, but now almost every parcel south of the Roosevelt Bridge no longer qualifies under Live Local because of the proximity to the airport.

Under SB 328 the Live Local Act zoning benefits are not permitted in airport flight paths defined as areas extending ¼ mile wide from each lateral side of the runway and extending 10,000 feet long from the end of the runway. That takes care of most of the city. A few feet of Sunset Bay Marina and the end of Flagler Park would be eligible, but both will never be developed.

There are no vacant parcels north of the Roosevelt Bridge now that Avonlea is completed. For all intents and purposes, that area will be left unchanged. Though I wonder whether that is the best outcome for the city’s future.

To the west of Stuart, there is tremendous growth in Indiantown. Hundreds of homes will be built in the Terra Lago development. The creation of waterfront district along the St. Lucie Canal has been approved. There are other residential and commercial projects ready to happen which will make Indiantown a thriving small city.

Considering Newfield, the new city rising in Palm City, when it is built-out in 20 years, it will be the home of 15,000 new residents. There are also plans for industrial and commercial areas providing employment and business opportunity. We have already noticed an influx of traffic from Port St. Lucie where thousands of residents commute to and through Stuart every day for work, entertainment, shopping, and doctor’s appointments.

Stuart’s comprehensive plan has the city at 25,000 residents by 2030. Right now, even with the less than 2,000 apartments that have been approved, the city will fall far short of that population goal. In essence, one of our supposed traffic problems is caused by not enough housing and the need to commute into the city.

Stuart is built-out except for minor infill development. The commissioners have never had the political will to look to the future and the consequences of a tax base that is not growing. Live Local would have given the politicians a way to have development happen and keep their hands clean.

Now with the salvation Stuart was granted by the state, it can slowly wither like a character in a Tennessee Williams play. In his famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the Kowalsky’s lived on a street named Elysian Fields in New Orleans. The name Elysian Fields is known as the land of the dead in Greek mythology. Perhaps because of our own actions, we may one day join Stanley, Stella, and Blanche Dubois there.