The #IAMPSL Citizen Summit, now in its fourth edition, continued to offer Port St. Lucie residents a platform to discuss changes to the growing city on Feb. 7.
Hundreds once again flocked to the city’s Community Center, 2195 SE Airoso Blvd., as Port St. Lucie staff hailed past successes and future prospects. Much of the summit paid tribute to the city being honored by the National Civic League as one of their 10 “All-America City” winners last year.
According to the National Civic League website, Port St. Lucie joined cities including Tallahassee and Seattle in recognition of “exceptional civic capital and a commitment to strengthening environmental sustainability.”
These accolades showered newer Port St. Lucie initiatives including “Naturally PSL,” an eco-conscious program begun at last year’s summit held Feb. 1, 2025. The event attracted a record “over 1,000” visitors, according to city communications director Scott Samples. “The attendance grows every year.”
Several achievements Naturally PSL led with, Samples added, included “asking residents” about joining the initiative’s “Conservation Corps” to serve as “stewards of Port St. Lucie’s green spaces.”
Their input would also “inform future development” of the program, waterway improvements, and acquisitions through the city’s internal Community Land Bank, Samples said.
Further emphasis on environmental awareness led much of the proceedings for #IAMPSL 2026 as differing opinions on the city’s growth coincided with newer developments, mostly in housing and commercial properties.
Other displays refreshed visitors about public safety works, including the city’s growing police presence and a demonstration of how to navigate a roundabout, the city’s predominant alternative to gridded intersections.
More amenities in store for visitors include the planned $80 million soccer stadium at Walton & One, due to open next year. The stadium, city records show, will wholly use private funding.
Residents who voiced approval of the city’s direction included Neville Roberts, who was “very impressed” with this year’s summit, he said. It was the third summit he attended out of the four installments so far.
Roberts moved to Port St. Lucie in 2008 from the Bronx. Much of his first experiences with his then-new neighbors arose through his door-to-door canvassing for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign.
Roberts said he “fell in love” with Port St. Lucie after over five decades in the Big Apple. “It was difficult at first; you got doors slammed in your face and all that kind of thing. But, as time goes on, little by little, things start to get more interesting.”
Port St. Lucie, which was recovering from the Great Recession upon Roberts’ move, has since forged ahead with the development of Southern Grove and Tradition, which now awaits a Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club, among other commercial outlets.
“Homes,” Roberts added, “are definitely going up.” Growth in these sectors marked “a big improvement” from what he had once seen nearly two decades ago. He felt it “beyond belief” that much of these properties once arose from abandoned “cow pastures.”
Some residents, however, wonder if these patterns fit with the city’s push toward environmental stewardship.
Sharon Nonnemacher moved to Port St. Lucie around 2000 to keep the quiet life as developments sprung up near her former Broward County home. Developments here, though, parallel the troubling growth patterns she once moved away from.
Nonnemacher, a Floresta Gardens resident near Crosstown Parkway, bemoaned the “larger developments,” she said, of key areas the city has expanded toward: Tradition, Torino Parkway, and Becker Road east of the Florida Turnpike.
Access to nature over the past 25 years became to Nonnemacher, a Keep Port St. Lucie Beautiful volunteer in her free time, restrictive “without having to drive past 50 cars to get to a park,” she said.
“It’s important to all of Florida,” Nonnemacher said. “I think the point of green spaces is to leave nature the way it’s been for 50 years and not tear down an area to build a park that’s going to take 20 to 30 years for trees to grow back.”
Green spaces and increased traffic coincide with the possibility of downsizing growth in the coming years, Nonnemacher suggested, as newer homes “continually go back up for sale.”
She added: “It seems that people who have been living here for a long period of time are moving,” in addition to some newer residents. “I see a lot of people moving away and a lot of homes going up for sale.”
Altogether, #IAMPSL garnered input from residents amenable to welcoming nature in their homestead, broadcast under a city slogan of “Safe, Clean & Beautiful.”
Polls from #IAMPSL 2025, city records show, align with these interests.
One poll focused on a $1 million grant the city received from the U.S. Forest Service in 2023 to pay for its growing urban tree canopy. Out of 168 resident voters, 65 (38.7 percent) said they would prefer expert advice on which tree species to plant in their yard.
Another poll, which garnered 327 votes, focused on where to allot traffic safety resources. A stronger police presence won the poll with 135 votes (41.3 percent), followed by more preventative education programs (110 votes; 33.6 percent); traffic calming construction (66 votes; 20.2 percent); and more signage (16; 4.89 percent).