Residents urge Fort Pierce commission to block high‑density Causeway Cove plan

Dozens of residents pressed the Fort Pierce City Commission on Sept. 14 to oppose a proposed Causeway Cove development they said would be out of scale and dangerous for the island. Paula Radder, a Harbor Isle Drive homeowner, said the developer’s plan would replace the master‑planned, low‑density Causeway Cove Village layout with “massive 17‑story towers, 900 apartments, and [a] 400‑room hotel complex,” and she urged commissioners to “hold the line.”

Other speakers echoed those concerns. Julie Judge said the planning division’s administrative approval improperly counted submerged lands in density calculations and called on the commission to send the plan back to staff for revision. Jim Moyer, speaking for the Indian Riverkeeper, warned that overdevelopment “risks the Indian River Lagoon’s recovery” and pleaded with officials to “slow the roll.”

Commissioners and staff repeatedly clarified that the Live Local Act creates a state administrative review pathway and that many approvals would proceed through state channels. Planning Director Kevin Freeman and county representatives later said the county’s port master plan update did not originate as Causeway Cove planning and that the county had not conducted design work for that private project. Still, speakers repeatedly asked the commission to use legal and administrative tools to protect public safety, preserve green space and prevent trampling of the 2024 Western Peninsula master plan.

The public comment period showed a high degree of civic engagement and opposition to both the project and a pending proposal to remove protections in the South Beach overlay. “State laws should not give anyone permission to destroy our environment or risk our public safety,” Radder said, urging the commission to require developers to respect existing local boundaries.

The commission later voted to seek outside counsel to review the planning director’s administrative approval memo and to obtain a cost estimate for that review before deciding whether to proceed. That moved the procedural question about how to contest or defend against a Live Local administrative approval to a separate legal step for the commission to consider.