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From the Study: Treasure Coast joining urban South Florida
By William Hartnett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE -- The Treasure Coast's reputation as an unhurried destination for Northeastern retirees, a region distinct and separate from the bustling mega-counties to its south, is all but obsolete, according to study by Florida Atlantic University presented Monday. With just 470,000 residents and relatively vast tracts of open space, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties seem to have little in common with Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade, home to 5.3 million people packed tightly between the ocean and the Everglades. The report by FAU's Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions, however, concludes that South Florida encompasses the entire 7,750 square-mile area between Key West and Sebastian, a region with increasingly binding economic, social, environmental and transportation-related connections. More significant than the relatively recent developments that have led to the Treasure Coast's inclusion in the South Florida region are the challenges that affiliation will bring, said James Murley, the center's director. In other words, "How do we handle the next 2 million people that are coming to the region by 2030?" said Murley. Most of the developable land in Miami-Dade and Broward counties is occupied, Murley said, so many of those new residents will settle in the Treasure Coast. And with traffic congestion rising and housing prices outpacing wage growth in the more urban areas of South Florida, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties are expected to receive thousands of people fleeing other parts of the region. In some ways the Treasure Coast still represents "old South Florida," said Allan Wallis, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Colorado at Denver and an expert on indicators of regional vitality. The area's population is less racially and ethnically diverse and is generally older and wealthier than the "new South Florida" found in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, Wallis said. "Now it seems like the south is destiny for the north," Wallis said, as sweeping cultural, demographic, educational, economic and other changes spread up the coast from Miami. Such changes are already being seen even in traditionally development-paranoid Martin County. Wallis said growth there has accelerated in the relatively short time since FAU's most recent regional report card was released in 2001. Martin County Commission Chairman Doug Smith, however, said the county has not relaxed its growth rules or changed its philosophy on western development. Smith said growth pushing north from Miami-Dade and Broward counties has mostly leapfrogged Martin in favor of St. Lucie and Indian River. At the same time, Smith said, Martin County has increasingly worked with its neighbors to address regional problems. In March, Gov. Jeb Bush officially formed the Committee for a Sustainable Treasure Coast, a task force composed of 37 representatives from government and private entities in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties. The committee will look at ways to strengthen the economy, ensure access to health care and education and protect the environment. Continuing and expanding such cooperation will be necessary if the Treasure Coast is to avoid the wall-to-wall sprawl of Broward County, Murley said. "They have large (agricultural) areas that could be converted to large urban areas," he said of Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties. "They don't have a dike or the Everglades" to stop development from spreading west. |
