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Commission approves Fort Pierce Commerce Center with noise‑monitoring condition
Summary
The St. Lucie County commission approved a future land use change and rezoning for the Fort Pierce Commerce Center, allowing up to three buildings and 826,000 sq ft with 27% preservation; the board declined to flip a loading building but required a masonry wall if county noise limits are exceeded three times in a rolling six‑month period.
The St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners on May 20 adopted a future land use map amendment and approved a rezoning and preliminary plan for the Fort Pierce Commerce Center, a roughly 76‑acre industrial commerce park near Kings Highway and I‑95.
Planning staff told commissioners the proposal would change the site’s land use to a mixed‑use development (MXD) and preserve roughly 27% of the property in open space and wetlands. Corey Benton, planning manager for the county, said the full buildout envisioned up to three buildings totaling about 826,000 square feet and estimated trip generation of about 1,360 daily vehicle trips at full buildout.
Leslie Olson of District Planning Group, representing Hope Commercial Holdings, said the applicant worked with neighbors and revised the plan to expand preserved wetland and upland habitat. “We are creating about an acre of wetlands and restoring about 6 acres of upland habitat,” Olson said, adding the preserve area will be maintained in perpetuity under a monitoring plan.
A central point of debate was staff’s recommendation to “flip” the southeastern building so loading docks face away from adjacent residences, or alternately to require an 8‑foot opaque fence. Olson opposed flipping the building on safety and circulation grounds, saying the proposed layout separates truck and passenger circulation and that a flip would mix those flows. “We think it is a safer condition to do it this way,” she said, and cited a noise study that showed no code exceedances with the current layout.
After hearing public comment from a nearby resident who urged attention to stormwater and noise impacts, commissioners weighed tradeoffs between truck routing, aesthetics and neighbor buffering. The board ultimately approved the land‑use ordinance and the rezoning/preliminary‑plan resolution but added a condition: if sound measurements at adjacent residential property lines exceed the county’s decibel limits more than three times during any rolling six‑month period, the developer must install a masonry wall or comparable mitigation along the eastern boundary.
Commissioners also required final site‑plan conditions including a finalized landscape plan, eradication of listed invasive plants in the preserve area, revision of the southeastern building orientation in the final plan if the board so directs, all required permits prior to clearing, and that parking and lighting be designed to minimize impacts on neighboring homes.
The approvals were unanimous. The board continued several other large land‑use items on the docket to a June 2 meeting at the applicants’ request.
The next procedural step for the Fort Pierce Commerce Center is submission of a final site plan and landscape plan that incorporate the board’s conditions; site development permits will be required before any clearing or construction begins.
