Lennard Road PD&E

The Lennard Road improvement project has been a long planned transportation corridor that would begin at the St. Lucie/Martin County Line, lying east of U.S. 1, and then run north from the St. Lucie/ Martin County Line, into the southern areas of Ft. Pierce. This corridor has been long recognized as a key part of larger transportation program designed to provide capacity/circulatory relief to U.S. 1.

As part of the 1980 Census, the urban area population of St. Lucie County passed the 100,000 mark. As a consequence of that, the County was required to form a MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) for the purpose of providing for transportation planning in the urban areas of the community. In the mid 1980's, the St. Lucie County MPO completed its first Long-Range Transportation Plan. That plan, using previously approved general planning documents and relying on the existing future land use designations of the County and the cities of Ft. Pierce and Port St. Lucie, recognized that if development trends continued as they had up to that date, U.S. 1 would not be capable of handling the expected traffic volumes by the turn of century (2000) without significant widening and the development of alternative north/south corridor routes. Subsequent MPO studies in 1990, 1995 and 2000 reaffirmed the need for providing alternative travel routes along the U.S. 1 corridor. Recently, the St. Lucie County MPO has completed a Transit Development Plan that concluded that even with the most optimistic diversion of existing motorist trips to bus ridership, because of the lack of alternative north/south corridors, whatever number of cars that came off the road as a result of increased transit ridership were simply going to be replaced by new vehicles coming into the roadway network as result of the regions high rate of growth. That study, and a recent regional land use study, further concluded that even with a functional fixed route transit system, there would not be significant enough traffic reductions along U.S. 1 to eliminate the need for the widening of this road to an ultimate six lane configuration or the need for at least two additional north/south lanes to provide for congestion relief along this U.S. 1 corridor.

All of these studies have recognized that the only place that these additional lanes could be provided, and the only place where they would provide for a functional and measurable benefit to the U.S. 1 corridor, would be along the Lennard Road alignments.

It should be noted that until the early 1990s no specific alignment surveys or reviews had been conducted for the Lennard Road corridor north of Walton Road. Some preliminary work was done as part of the Savanna Club Development of Regional Impact reviews in the early 1980s, whereby it was determined that the most appropriate location for this roadway in the area of that project was along the Savanna Clubs DRI's west property line as opposed to its east line in order to keep the roadway alignment from cutting through the middle of the planned Savannas State Preserve. In the early 1990s, the alignment for this roadway was further refined to identify that the most practical location for the balance of this corridor was to basically skirt the western edge of the Savannas State Preserve, north of the Savanna Club property, using as a baseline certain existing public right-of-ways in the area. Although the County has title to a 100-foot right-of-way that passes through the middle of the Savannas State Preserve, which would have allowed direct access into the Indian River Estates subdivision area, it was concluded early on that use of that alignment, would not be in the best interest of the Savannas State Preserve. By working the edges of the State lands in this area, environmental impacts may be kept to the absolute minimum necessary to construct this roadway.

In short, the public benefits of this project along the proposed corridor include enhanced community mobility, reduced congestion levels along U.S. 1, avoidance of the bisection of the Savanna State Preserve and the incorporation of this route into the County's Bicycle, Pedestrian and Greenways Program as identified under the St. Lucie MPO's Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. This corridor alignment includes a concept that allows for the development of regional recreation trail that would provide for the connection of Savannas Preserve areas in St. Lucie County with the Savannas Preserve in Martin County (Green River Parkway) through the linkage of the existing state recreational facilities being completed in the Preserve and with future facilities that may be built along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River preserve areas, thus providing access to public properties that are used for preservation and recreational purposes.




			Project History The Lennard Road improvement project has been a long planned transportation corridor that would begin at the St. Lucie/Martin County Line, lying east of U.S. 1, and then run north from the St. Lucie/ Martin County Line, into the southern areas of Ft. Pierce. This corridor has been long recognized as a key part of larger transportation program designed to provide capacity/circulatory relief to U.S. 1. As part of the 1980 Census, the urban area population of St. Lucie County passed the 100,000 mark. As a consequence of that, the County was required to form a MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) for the purpose of providing for transportation planning in the urban areas of the community. In the mid 1980's, the St. Lucie County MPO completed its first Long-Range Transportation Plan. That plan, using previously approved general planning documents and relying on the existing future land use designations of the County and the cities of Ft. Pierce and Port St. Lucie, recognized that if development trends continued as they had up to that date, U.S. 1 would not be capable of handling the expected traffic volumes by the turn of century (2000) without significant widening and the development of alternative north/south corridor routes. Subsequent MPO studies in 1990, 1995 and 2000 reaffirmed the need for providing alternative travel routes along the U.S. 1 corridor. Recently, the St. Lucie County MPO has completed a Transit Development Plan that concluded that even with the most optimistic diversion of existing motorist trips to bus ridership, because of the lack of alternative north/south corridors, whatever number of cars that came off the road as a result of increased transit ridership were simply going to be replaced by new vehicles coming into the roadway network as result of the regions high rate of growth. That study, and a recent regional land use study, further concluded that even with a functional fixed route transit system, there would not be significant enough traffic reductions along U.S. 1 to eliminate the need for the widening of this road to an ultimate six lane configuration or the need for at least two additional north/south lanes to provide for congestion relief along this U.S. 1 corridor. All of these studies have recognized that the only place that these additional lanes could be provided, and the only place where they would provide for a functional and measurable benefit to the U.S. 1 corridor, would be along the Lennard Road alignments. It should be noted that until the early 1990s no specific alignment surveys or reviews had been conducted for the Lennard Road corridor north of Walton Road. Some preliminary work was done as part of the Savanna Club Development of Regional Impact reviews in the early 1980s, whereby it was determined that the most appropriate location for this roadway in the area of that project was along the Savanna Clubs DRI's west property line as opposed to its east line in order to keep the roadway alignment from cutting through the middle of the planned Savannas State Preserve. In the early 1990s, the alignment for this roadway was further refined to identify that the most practical location for the balance of this corridor was to basically skirt the western edge of the Savannas State Preserve, north of the Savanna Club property, using as a baseline certain existing public right-of-ways in the area. Although the County has title to a 100-foot right-of-way that passes through the middle of the Savannas State Preserve, which would have allowed direct access into the Indian River Estates subdivision area, it was concluded early on that use of that alignment, would not be in the best interest of the Savannas State Preserve. By working the edges of the State lands in this area, environmental impacts may be kept to the absolute minimum necessary to construct this roadway. In short, the public benefits of this project along the proposed corridor include enhanced community mobility, reduced congestion levels along U.S. 1, avoidance of the bisection of the Savanna State Preserve and the incorporation of this route into the County's Bicycle, Pedestrian and Greenways Program as identified under the St. Lucie MPO's Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. This corridor alignment includes a concept that allows for the development of regional recreation trail that would provide for the connection of Savannas Preserve areas in St. Lucie County with the Savannas Preserve in Martin County (Green River Parkway) through the linkage of the existing state recreational facilities being completed in the Preserve and with future facilities that may be built along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River preserve areas, thus providing access to public properties that are used for preservation and recreational purposes.