Rosser Lakes, after years of resident outcry and speculation, is now a city-owned preserve paid for through a newfound nonprofit guiding land conservation in Port St. Lucie.
The 104.91-acre Rosser Lakes property – between Rosser Boulevard and Interstate 95 with an entrance near Bermel Avenue – became the first acquisition of the Naturally PSL Community Trust for approximately $2.5 million.
The Port St. Lucie City Council formed the Trust – a nonprofit that will prioritize further land acquisitions through sponsor funding – on Feb. 20 to conclude their 2026 Winter Workshop and acquire Rosser Lakes the same day.
The parcel “will remain protected” under the Community Trust, Mayor Shannon Martin said before an audience of approximately 70 in a late-morning ceremony. Rosser Lakes will open as a public park for “passive recreation” by early March.
Martin added the park would not be “heavily amenitized” in order to maintain the land’s character after being disturbed by abortive developments.
The city will also need to clear access for parking and safety measures in the weeks leading to the opening, added Parks and Recreation assistant director Brad Keen.
Much of what could have been 100 houses remained as debris on the western and southern boundaries of two bodies of water in the parcel. Cracked stone columns – likely of foundations – and abandoned PVC drainage tubes lay strewn about among dead foliage dried out by the early February cold snap. These ruins recalled rapid housing developments of decades past, which declined drastically upon the Great Recession of 2007-08.
“As our city grows,” Martin said, “preserving green space has become more challenging and more important. It’s important to acknowledge the past and that much of the development happening in Port St. Lucie today was approved over 20 years ago.”
Past city councils bore “limited legal authority to change projects decades ago” before navigating these obstacles through initiatives like the Community Trust, Martin said. “That is simply the framework that we had to operate within.”
By contrast, Port St. Lucie officials denied the rezoning of the conservation land to build nearly 100 homes on a 17.86-acre perimeter immediately east of the two lakes on the property last September, city records show. A northwest cell tower, whose construction was approved in January 2019, is the sole product of these developments.
Martin credited resident input over the years on matters from traffic to preserving the environs of the Rosser Reserve neighborhood that led to the purchase.
“They guided us to this outcome today,” she said. “Recalling the history of this property, I knew that changing it from its natural state would be a huge and irreversible mistake. We denied that proposal and worked toward a different solution.”
To make up for the first Naturally PSL land grab, the city will apply for at least $1.2 million in grants from the Florida Communities Trust, deputy city manager Kate Parmelee said.
The Community Trust notches another victory under Naturally PSL, a eco-conscious initiative that the city kicked off at the third annual #IAMPSL Citizen Summit in February 2025. Resident polls guided the city to incorporate more parks and green spaces which led to the formation of Naturally PSL. To that end, the city will unveil “six more” parks this year, Martin said.
To honor volunteer efforts under Naturally PSL, the city planted five saplings near the south lake with plaques enshrining recipients of the initiative’s first batch of Environmental Stewardship awards.
In over one year of operation, staff and volunteers affiliated with Naturally PSL “identified 198 acres” as city-owned preserves and designated another “745 acres” more for “future green space,” city releases say.