Live in Floresta Gardens
A square of the City of Port St. Lucie's first grid between Crosstown Parkway, Floresta Drive, Whitmore Drive and Airoso Boulevard, one neighborhood back from the North Fork, where no resident's block is in FEMA's 1% flood zone or a hurricane evacuation zone, owners hold 85% of the homes, and the free bus comes once an hour.
Floresta Gardens is one of the 36 neighborhoods on the City of Port St. Lucie's own map, 918 acres of the grid General Development Corporation laid out after it bought land along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River in 1958, three years before the city was incorporated; the City's neighborhood program called it Floresta South until residents voted for the present name in 2018. Riverview lies between it and the river, and Floresta Elementary sits 112 m outside its line on Floresta Drive. The 2020 census counted 5,597 residents on its blocks, about 7% more than on the same ground in 2010, with owners in 85% of the occupied homes and a fifth of the residents under 18. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 34983, which holds 89% of them, was $361,472 in August 2026, down 1.3% on the year, but the ZIP held almost eight times as many people and is not a Floresta Gardens price.
A square of the first grid, with Riverview between it and the water
One neighborhood on the City of Port St. Lucie's own map: Floresta Gardens, feature 13 (planning area 3g) on the Neighborhood Services department's NICE neighborhoods layer, about 918 acres, clipped here to the City's current limits as St. Lucie County's municipal boundaries layer draws them, which leaves out no resident. Traced against the Census Bureau's road file it is close to a square: Crosstown Parkway on the north, the line dropping to SE West Virginia Drive just south of the parkway at its eastern end; Floresta Drive on the east, from the parkway south to Whitmore Drive; Whitmore Drive on the south; and Airoso Boulevard on the west, back north to the parkway. Riverview wraps it on the east and south, Bayshore Heights is across Airoso Boulevard and Floresta Pointe across the parkway, a separate City neighborhood. Inside are Doat Street Park, Kiwanis Park on Floresta Drive and Christ Lutheran School; Thornhill Drive and Airoso Boulevard's bus stops run through it. Floresta Elementary is 112 m outside, in Riverview. No community development district or community redevelopment area touches it. Every 2020 resident is in City Council District 1 and in St. Lucie Public Schools.
Floresta Gardens is a line on the City of Port St. Lucie's own map, and close to a square. It is one of the 36 neighborhoods the City's Neighborhood Services department draws for its NICE program, about 918 acres: Crosstown Parkway on the north, Floresta Drive on the east, Whitmore Drive on the south and Airoso Boulevard on the west. Riverview wraps it on the east and south, Bayshore Heights is across Airoso and Floresta Pointe across the parkway. The 2020 census counted 5,597 residents, up about 7% on 2010, and 21% of them were under 18. The program called this part Floresta South until February 2018, when the City announced the names residents had voted for; whether people use the new one was not checked.
The ground is the city's first grid. General Development Corporation bought 40,000 acres along the North Fork in 1958 and the City was incorporated in 1961; no source read here dates these streets. Inside the line are two City parks from 1984, Doat Street and Kiwanis, and Christ Lutheran School on Floresta Drive. Floresta Elementary is not inside: it sits 112 m outside, across Floresta Drive in Riverview. The northern edge changed most recently, when Crosstown Parkway was carried east over the North Fork to US 1 and its bridge opened on 28 September 2019; the parkway meets Floresta Drive at this line's north-east corner.
The river is a neighborhood away, and the maps show it. FEMA's effective map of 2020 puts 0.7% of the ground in the 1% annual chance flood zone and no resident's block in it, and no resident is in either of St. Lucie County's hurricane evacuation zones, where more than half of Riverview is. Every resident is in the planning area around FPL's St. Lucie nuclear plant. None of that means no water: rain runs off through the City's swales and canals, the swale and driveway culvert in front of a house are the owner's to keep clear, and in 2017 Irma's rain reached 10.36 inches at a Port St. Lucie gauge. A homeowners policy does not cover rising water.
No price index follows the City's line. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 34983, which holds 89% of the residents, was $361,472 in August 2026, down 1.3% on the year; the ZIP held 43,654 people in 2020. Every City address pays the same seventeen levies, 22.3097 mills for 2025, and no community development district or redevelopment area touches Floresta Gardens. A homesteaded buyer at the ZIP figure owes about $7,106 a year on the base exemption amounts, a landlord about $8,064; at the county's $402,500 single-family median, about $8,022. The City's solid waste and stormwater assessments add $671 for 2026-27, and no exemption reduces them. Save Our Homes resets on a sale, so the seller's bill understates yours. The arithmetic is on the Port St. Lucie page.
The bus runs through, once an hour. Area Regional Transit's route 6 has six stops inside the line, on Airoso Boulevard and Floresta Drive, free, weekdays and Saturday daytime; 917 residents are also inside ART's on-demand Zone 2. Owners lived in 85% of the 2,030 occupied homes in 2020. Every resident is in City Council District 1, whose member on 1 October 2026 was Stephanie Morgan, whose term runs to November 2026.
- Run the address on FEMA's map anyway, and get a quote for a flood policy: it waits 30 days to start
- Estimate the tax at your purchase price, then add the City's solid waste and stormwater lines
- Ask whether the house is on City water and sewer: an owner still on a well and septic tank pays $18,821 to connect
- Run the address in the district's SchoolSite Locator: 598 residents are assigned to a different high school
How Floresta Gardens got here
- 1958General Development Corporation buys the River Park development and 40,000 acres along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River, with a budget of $50 million.
- 1961Port St. Lucie becomes a city on 27 April, by House Bill 953.
- 1984Kiwanis Park on Floresta Drive and Doat Street Park are established, on the City's parks layer.
- 2010The census counts about 5,240 residents on the same ground.
- 2017Construction starts on the Crosstown Parkway extension to US 1, the road that is now the neighborhood's northern edge. In September Hurricane Irma's rain reaches 10.36 inches at a Port St. Lucie gauge.
- 2018On 17 February the City announces official names for 17 neighborhoods chosen by residents' vote at its first NICE Day block party; Floresta South becomes Floresta Gardens.
- 2019The first NICE neighborhood meeting of the year, on 23 March at the Community Center, invites Floresta Gardens, Floresta Pointe and Riverview. The Crosstown Parkway bridge over the North Fork opens on 28 September.
- 2020The census counts 5,597 residents and 2,111 homes. FEMA's flood map panel for the area takes effect on 19 February.
- 2026Floresta Elementary, just outside the line, is graded C for the third year running and St. Lucie West Centennial High B. District 1's council seat, which holds every resident, is on the November ballot.
Two neighborhood parks inside, and everything bigger across the river
Kiwanis Park, 3.8 acres on Floresta Drive, has a playground, a pavilion and restrooms; Doat Street Park, 2.4 acres and the nearest to the reference point, lists no equipment on the City's layer. For courts, the City's nearest are at Lyngate Park across the North Fork; for a garden, the Botanical Gardens on Westmoreland Boulevard. The photographs here are of other parts of the city.
What the map does not show: none of the parks inside the line reaches the river. The North Fork's bank is Riverview's, and the nearest boat ramp on the City's layer is across the water.
Elsewhere in Port St. Lucie, not Floresta Gardens
24 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 24 places, nearest first.
Method: straight lines from the population-weighted center of Floresta Gardens' census blocks, times a road factor of 1.32, with a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The nearest gym is the City's Port St. Lucie Community Center, south on Airoso Boulevard in Riverview, whose fitness center shares a membership with the one at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center. The only public pool listed is the County's, at Ravenswood.
- Community Center: about 2.4 km by road, $33 a month or $300 a year for an adult
- MIDFLORIDA Event Center: about 5.0 km, open from 6 a.m. on weekdays
- Ravenswood Community Pool: about 4.0 km, season not published where it could be read
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Port St. Lucie Community Center open | The City's center at 2195 SE Airoso Boulevard, south on Airoso in Riverview: a fitness center on the same membership as the MIDFLORIDA Event Center's ($33 a month or $300 a year for an adult, $5 a day), an 8,300-square-foot hall and meeting rooms, open daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. | 5–7 min |
| MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center open | The City's Fitness & Wellness Center at 9221 SE Event Center Place, across the river: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at weekends, on the same membership. | 8–11 min |
| Ravenswood Community Pool open | St. Lucie County's pool at 400 SW Ravenswood Lane, north of the parkway, the only public pool the county's parks layer lists in the city; its season and hours were not read, because the county's pages refused requests. | 6–10 min |
| Lyngate Park open | The free option with courts: the City's tennis, basketball, racquetball and volleyball courts at 1301 SE Lyngate Drive, across the North Fork. Kiwanis Park, inside the line, has a playground. | 6–9 min |
The free option is Kiwanis Park's playground inside the line, or the City's courts at Lyngate Park across the river.
Choice to grade 8, and the nearest school just over the line
Every address is in St. Lucie Public Schools, which runs choice from kindergarten to grade 8, so no address is zoned to an elementary or middle school. Every resident is in the Blue zone, and ZIP 34983's bus list includes Floresta Elementary, 112 m outside the line and graded C, and Northport K-8, graded C. High schools are assigned by address: St. Lucie West Centennial High, graded B, for 4,999 residents, and Port St. Lucie High for 598.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Floresta Elementary School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 1501 SE Floresta Drive, 112 m outside the line in Riverview and 1.2 km from the reference point. Kindergarten to grade 8 is by choice in St. Lucie Public Schools, so no address here is zoned to it: every resident is in the Blue zone, and for ZIP 34983 the Blue 1 transportation area lists Floresta, Northport K-8, Parkway, Rivers Edge and Savanna Ridge elementaries and Southern Oaks Middle. Graded C for 2026, 2025 and 2024. |
| Northport K-8 School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 250 NW Floresta Drive, on the Blue 1 list and the nearest school with middle grades, 4.1 km in a straight line: graded C for 2026 after B for 2025. Bayshore Elementary, 2.7 km away and graded B, is nearer but on the Red zone's list, so a Blue family that chooses it may have no bus. |
| St. Lucie West Centennial High School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 1485 Cashmere Boulevard, grades 9 to 12: high schools are assigned by address, and the district's locator gives this one at the reference point and for 4,999 residents, those in ZIP 34983. The other 598, in 34984, are assigned to Port St. Lucie High, graded A for 2026. Graded B for 2026, 2025 and 2024; the grades are the state's as CBS12 republished them. |
Run your own address. Bayshore Elementary, graded B and nearer than Northport, is on the Red zone's list, so a Blue family that chooses it may have no bus. The grades are the state's, as CBS12 republished them.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Highs near 23 °C and lows near 11 °C on the 1991 to 2020 normal at the county airport, about 23 km north, with about one night a year at or below freezing
- Bought last year? The homestead exemption is due with the property appraiser by 1 March
- The Mets open their 2027 spring training home schedule at Clover Park on 19 February, about 10 km away by road
- The driest month on the normal, about 55 mm of rain, with highs near 24 °C
- 1 March is the deadline for the homestead exemption and for portability of a Save Our Homes benefit
- St. Lucie Public Schools' open enrollment for kindergarten to grade 8 runs through March (1 to 31 March in 2026)
- The last of the Mets' 15 home dates at Clover Park is 20 March 2027
- Highs near 28 °C and about 77 mm of rain, the last of the dry months
- A good month to clear the swale and driveway culvert, which the owner, not the City, keeps open
- About 100 mm of rain as the wet season begins, highs near 30 °C
- A new flood policy takes 30 days to start: buy it before June, not when a storm is named
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November
- About 170 mm of rain, mostly in afternoon thunderstorms, and about 12 days reaching 32 °C
- Highs near 32 °C and lows near 23 °C, with about 18 days reaching 32 °C
- About 149 mm of rain, nearly all of it in afternoon storms
- The property appraiser mails the TRIM notice of proposed taxes in mid-August, and a petition to the Value Adjustment Board is due 25 days after the mailing (8 September in 2026)
- The wettest month on the normal, about 176 mm
- The Atlantic season peaks around 10 September; Irma's rain in September 2017 reached 10.36 inches at a Port St. Lucie gauge
- The City holds its budget hearing at City Hall on Port St. Lucie Boulevard (14 September in 2026)
- About 159 mm of rain
- The City's fiscal year starts on 1 October, and with it the year's solid waste assessment ($482.16 a house for 2026-27)
- Hurricane season has two months to run; about 133 mm of rain
- Tax bills come in November, with the solid waste and stormwater assessments on them
- On 3 November 2026 District 1's council seat, which holds every resident here, is up, and Florida votes on Amendment 3, which would change the homestead exemption from 2027 if 60% approve
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November
- PSLinLights displays at the Community Center, south on Airoso Boulevard, and at The Port District are free from dusk to 9 p.m. nightly to 31 December
- The City's Festival of Lights at the MIDFLORIDA Event Center is on 5 December 2026
- Highs near 24 °C and about 59 mm of rain
Every photograph in this guide's library is above
This library holds 6 photographs and the page has already printed all of them, each once. The credits are in the footer.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images from the site's shared Port St. Lucie library, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. None of them is presented as a photograph of Floresta Gardens.