Despite Indian River County residents panning a state plan to narrow travel lanes and add a sidewalk to the east side of State Road A1A south of Vero Beach, the project appears to be headed toward a 2027 groundbreaking.
Still, exactly what the Florida Department of Transportation will do and what it will look like remains up in the air.
It’s enough to make you wonder why the Fort Lauderdale-based FDOT bothers with holding public meetings to gather community input if the agency won’t take at least some advice offered by local residents ― in this case a March 2025 meeting.
At least two larger SR A1A neighborhoods are fired up. They’re making another effort to persuade higher-ups at FDOT the wasteful project would hurt the area.
Objections were raised at the 2025 FDOT meeting at Vero Beach’s Riverhouse over an estimated $10.6 million project that would clog the road from 2027 to 2029. The vast majority of about 50 attendees — including many bicyclists — ripped a state plan that would:
Will residents’ biggest concerns be reflected?
Earlier this month, Maria Formoso, FDOT project manager, told me this proposal remains on the table, but the agency would continue to take feedback through March 16 via email: maria.formoso@dot.state.fl.us.
Her comments on the plans differ from some in emails other FDOT officials or consultants have sent to area residents. I asked the agency’s communications manager for details in mid-February, but have not received anything.
The largest concerns I’ve heard from residents at the 2025 meeting and in dozens of emails FDOT received from residents (about half of which supported a sidewalk):
Castaway Cove residents have valid concerns
This project should not be that controversial. Ideally, FDOT, seeing a difference in community opinion, would have held subsequent meetings with opposing sides together in an effort to reach consensus.
As I hear various sides, I see several opportunities.
There seem no objections to having an eastern sidewalk from 17th Street to Jasmine Lane, where there’s a 7-Eleven.
I don’t think anyone would object to pleas from Castaway Cove residents ― raised in comments emailed to FDOT after the public meeting ― to extend a sidewalk to their neighborhood.
I doubt there’d be many objections to adding crosswalks at Jasmine and/or Castaway Cove. Many Castaway residents want to walk or ride north safely to go to south and central Vero Beach amenities.
One of those residents is Aaron Vos, a Vero Beach City Council member who said he hasn’t taken an official position on the sidewalk. He finds it dangerous to cross SR A1A by foot or bike to dine at Johnny D’s restaurant or head north to the beach. Personally, he’d like to see a crosswalk and sidewalk at least to his neighborhood.
“I see it as a death trap,” Vos said, adding neighborhoods along the road are changing. “It is a growing community of young adults with children.”
Which explains why FDOT received emails from eastside parents who say they want the sidewalk extended to St. Lucie County so their children can safely visit friends in other eastside neighborhoods or walk to St. Edward’s School by using a planned crosswalk at the school’s existing traffic signal.
Maybe a consensus could be reached to extend the sidewalk to some neighborhoods to the south.
Will Seagrove beauty be compromised?
But just north of St. Edward’s, a majority of residents in Seagrove oppose the sidewalk, according to Bill Homer, president and treasurer of the Seagrove Property Owners Association, founded in 1979.
Seagrove East’s attractive, oak-lined entrance could be at risk, Horner said, and retrofitting it could cost in the six figures. The association has met with FDOT, which says part of the entrance was built on state right of way.
A few blocks south of the school, the 54-year-old Moorings of Vero Property Owners Association, which represents more than 1,000 homes, also opposes the sidewalk, said President Russell Twiss.
So does the South Beach Property Owners Association, led by Miles Conway, who lives on an estate just south of Round Island Beach Park.
While Formoso told me the sidewalk still was planned to go to the St. Lucie County line — there is no eastern sidewalk there — some emails from FDOT sent to residents say the eastern sidewalk’s southernmost point would be Galleon Drive in The Moorings.
Having lived in The Moorings until the early 1990s and before the western sidewalk was built, I’ve seen the area’s evolution the past 40 years and understand residents’ concerns, particularly with regard to drainage. It’s better now than ever, but the road still floods in certain sections.
Drainage ‘fixed’ in 2011, but not really
After a 2011 state repaving project, drainage issues remained, mostly on the eastern side of the road. One neighborhood, the Shorelands, waited until late 2023 to have its front-entrance flooding problems resolved.
The biggest opposition at the March 2025 meeting related to bicycle lanes. They should be buffered 7-foot lanes, advocates said, like they are along SR A1A through Vero Beach and will be to Sebastian Inlet State Park.
“I cringe every time I see a bike there (in the existing bicycle lane) … and how dangerous it is,” said Jeffrey Nolan, who lives on the east side of SR A1A near The Moorings and was concerned about narrowing the lanes. “I’d rather give up the walkway on the east side so you can have a (wider) bike lane.”
Folks like Nolan offer local knowledge. FDOT, however, is charged with implementing safety standards statewide. Can there be differences between, say, Miami and Tampa and Fort Pierce and Vero Beach?
I hope so.
Representatives of Seagrove and The Moorings hope to persuade FDOT to change the plans, pointing out what they view as misinformation in certain emails. One email from FDOT suggested, inaccurately, that Vero Beach City Council had endorsed the project.
Ideally, FDOT would delay the project until it gets residents on the same page ― meshing local requests with state standards. And let’s see some good renderings of what things will look like.
Everyone wants safe roads.
Many residents want cost-efficient safety efforts that don’t negatively impact other parts of their lives.
South Beach residents, reeling from years of work on the Alma Lee Loy Bridge, will face almost two more years of road work. Hopefully as many people as possible get what they want, as opposed to getting a one-size-fits-all bureaucratic decision.
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: Vero Beach to St Lucie road plans fraught with controversy | Opinion
Reporting by Laurence Reisman, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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