The other day I visited what reminded me of either a wildlife preserve or a retreat in the hills of north-central Florida, Georgia or the Carolinas.
Right off U.S. 1. Not near Hobe Sound, which has some of the prettiest and most natural and peaceful wildlife areas on the Treasure Coast.
This one was just west of U.S. 1 north of Fort Pierce.
The 14 acres or so, surrounded on three sides by St. Lucie County’s 297-acre Indrio Savannas Preserve, is a rare combination of old Florida, wildlife and local history.
Buc-ee’s, Binney issues hurt Indrio character, but …
It would be a shame to lose it to the bulldozers of national builders who would love to scoop it up and clutter it with apartments or templated homes.
Developers have scarfed up land just down nearby Indrio Road for apartments adjacent to the historic estate of Crayola founder Edwin Binney, Farther west, a massive Buc-ee’s travel station and thousands of homes are slated at Interstate 95.
Bill Hearn hopes his bird paradise doesn’t meet a similar fate.
He’d prefer it end up with owners who preserve the scenery and wildlife he and his wife, Jeanne, have worked four decades to cultivate.
“We call it ‘Nature’s Airport’,” said Hearn, who didn’t need the telescope sitting against the wall to look out his second-floor windows to see a sandhill crane nesting on an island in his 6-acre lake.
It’s one of many species — from eagles to wood ducks — whose flight paths include Hearn’s backyard.
Hearn, Tozour homestead part of St. Lucie history
At 86, and having had his property on the market for three years, Hearn still hopes to sell to good stewards.
“But I don’t want to give it away,” he said of the property, which includes four homes and about 2 acres on U.S. 1 with an income-producing billboard on it.
Realtor Nic Stover has it listed at $4.25 million and has several ideas for it. One is marketing it to professionals ― including those in the sports world ― in New York and California who would appreciate a secluded, private compound.
Interestingly, two of the Hearns’ three children, who helped build the main, three-story home overlooking the lake, have been sports professionals.
Their son, Ed, was a Fort Pierce Central High School graduate who eschewed a congressional appointment to play football at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to play baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1986, he was a catcher on the World Series-winning New York Mets.
Son Tom is a longtime professional golfer and PGA rules official.
Bill Hearn said he and the family hit lots of golf balls on the homestead over the years.
The property has been in the family since the early 1960s. Jack Tozour, who rebuilt the Kline home on land Joe and Barbara Houston inherited between U.S. 1 and Old Dixie Highway, later bought their property west of U.S. 1.
It’s off an abandoned section of what was the precursor to U.S. 1. Tozour and his wife, Mildred, built a home similar to one they left 3 miles south on Ridgehaven Road, but added a pool, Hearn said of his in-laws.
Numerous homes private, near preserve
That abandoned section of road — now called Tozour Road after its first residents ― unusually meets U.S. 1 in two places:
The Tozour homestead added three homes in the 1980s:
Birds of this paradise part of history
Hearn rents out the three older homes. The Hearns continue to live in the three-story home he said Tom, with Jeanne’s input, designed in a high school mechanical drawing class.
The second floor is adorned with wildlife images from the property, which has plenty of oaks, cypress trees, palms and native plants. It was one of the most-photographed properties in the county, Hearn said.
It’s easy to tell why. There are even remnants of gear Hearn used for decades when he had a federal permit to hatch and raise over 1,000 wild ducks and geese.
The upland near the lake, stocked with fish, has been home to weddings and sports practices, including an area to hit golf balls — even though wayward ones remain in the drink.
Could nonprofits unite to preserve homestead?
Hearn, who grew up in Stuart and served on the St. Lucie County Planning and Zoning Commission in the 2000s, and his wife, Jeanne, have enjoyed the Florida outdoors, including the Indian River Lagoon. They’ve been involved in local conservation efforts for years, from getting the county to acquire an old sand mine and low-lying proposed subdivision for the preserve to trying to control growth at the Port of Fort Pierce and near I-95.
Price aside, the environmental assets of the Hearn property seem significant. Given its location on the sand ridge, it reminds me a little of the Hallstrom Farmstead Conservation Area on Old Dixie Highway that Indian River County and the Indian River Land Trust have partnered to buy, preserve and open to the public.
Just imagine if a private nonprofit — or groups focused on the environment and history ― teamed up with the county, which could focus more on preserving environmental areas, like Martin and Indian River counties, to save the Tozour-Hearn property.
Sadly, though, St. Lucie County seems more focused on urban sprawl.
‘It’s one of the last unique properties around’
Maybe some creative hospitality entrepreneur could use the U.S. 1 property and rentals to bankroll the property in the short run. With renovations ― or without adding to the buildings’ footprints — I could see it as a premium getaway location.
But, as Stover said, it would be a great private estate.
“It’s one of the last unique properties around,” said Stover. “It will remain private.”
Hearn has enjoyed that privacy for almost 40 years. He fully understands how that differentiates his property from most others between U.S. 1 and, soon, Interstate 95.
“We don’t have to ever look at a housing project out there or anything like that,” he said, contrasting that with the priceless sunsets he sees from his deck. “If somebody could spend six months here, they’d understand why I want what I want for the property.”
We should all want that kind of protection to keep our little piece of paradise special.
This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida ‘airport’ unique. Winged traffic must be preserved | Opinion
Reporting by Laurence Reisman, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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