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Hobe Sound grove owner wants to develop new city, employment center

TCPalm – February 15, 2011

HOBE SOUND — The owner of a 2,832-acre citrus grove at Bridge Road and Florida’s Turnpike wants to develop the land into a new city with 4,300 houses, a 650,000-square-foot town center and 3.9 million square feet of research, office and educational space.

Construction on the Hobe Grove Development of Regional Impact would start in 2012 and be completed by 2031 under preliminary plans submitted last month to the state Department of Community Affairs.

But first the project must go through a lengthy review process involving county, regional and state officials.

A “pre-application” meeting will be held at the Martin County Administrative Center at 10 a.m., Wednesday, with the development team making a presentation to county and regional planners.

Job creation appears to be an important selling point for the project.

“The Hobe Grove project site … is optimally suited for the development of an employment center focused on research and education, fully integrated within a new sustainable community,” officials with Becker B-14 Groves of Vero Beach said in the pre-application. “The project’s research and development and office space, along with the town center, has the potential to support more than 11,000 new, high-quality jobs.”

In addition to employment opportunities, the project will be designed to provide land for school facilities to serve about 2,000 students in grades K through 12, state records show. There will also be a site for a higher education campus accommodating up to 3,500 students.

The Hobe Grove DRI would provide an opportunity to store excess fresh water from the Okeechobee Waterway so that it doesn’t damage the St. Lucie River Estuary, state records show. Instead the water would be cleaned and released into the headwaters of the Loxahatchee River, which needs more fresh water.

Part of the process includes requesting several major amendments to Martin County’s Comprehensive Growth Management Plan, including changing the future land use of the agricultural property and creating a free-standing urban service district.

Water and sewer facilities will be built on the site under the authority of the Hobe St. Lucie Conservancy District, state records show. There will also be a water reuse system for irrigation.

Among the facilities proposed in the Hobe Grove DRI are a community recreation center, a community garden, a day care facility, a multi-modal transportation center, parks, and paths for pedestrians and bicyclists, state records show. The town center would offer stores, offices and services.

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