Live in Palm Trails
A piece of Port St. Lucie's original grid between Crosstown Parkway and the C-24 canal, with Oak Hammock K-8 on its western edge and no other school, store or bus route inside, where a quarter of the residents were children in 2020, no one is in FEMA's 1% flood zone, and the nearest bus stop is 2 km from the middle.
General Development Corporation bought 40,000 acres along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River in 1958, and the City of Port St. Lucie was incorporated on 27 April 1961; Palm Trails is a piece of that ground between Interstate 95 and Florida's Turnpike that the City's neighborhood program named in February 2018, when residents voted to replace the working name Monterrey. The 2020 census counted 8,416 residents on its 1,323 acres, up about 24% from 6,797 on the same ground in 2010; owners lived in 80% of the 2,793 occupied homes, and 24% of the residents were under 18. Oak Hammock K-8 on California Boulevard and the open space of Apache Park are inside the line; St. Lucie West, Clover Park and Tradition are a few minutes away across Crosstown Parkway and the interstate. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 34953, which holds every resident, was $397,936 in August 2026, down 0.4% on the year, but the ZIP held 77,023 people in 2020 and is not a Palm Trails price.
A family grid between the parkway and the canal, with the school on its edge
The City of Port St. Lucie's Palm Trails neighborhood (OBJECTID 20, planning area 4Nf) on NS_NEIGHBORHOODS, the map behind the Neighborhood Services department's NICE program, clipped to the City's current limits as St. Lucie County's Municipal Boundaries layer draws them (last edited 18 February 2026): about 1,323 acres. Traced against the City's road classification layer and OpenStreetMap's C-24 (Diversion Canal), the line runs north up Savona Boulevard from the C-24 canal to California Boulevard; along California Boulevard as it curves north-west and north to Crosstown Parkway; east along Crosstown Parkway to Cashmere Boulevard; south on Cashmere Boulevard to Del Rio Boulevard; south-east along Del Rio Boulevard to Port St. Lucie Boulevard; and back west along the C-24 canal, the southern edge. Inside are Oak Hammock K-8 and Apache Park; Oak Hammock Park, which gives the next neighborhood its name, is about 0.7 km outside to the west. The name is the one residents chose in the City's 2018 naming vote; whether it is in everyday use was not checked. All of it is in City Council District 2, in ZIP code 34953, in St. Lucie Public Schools' Red zone and outside every community development district and community redevelopment area.
Palm Trails is a line the City of Port St. Lucie drew, around a name its residents picked. General Development Corporation bought 40,000 acres along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River in 1958, and the City was incorporated on 27 April 1961. In February 2018 the City's neighborhood program announced names for 17 parts of that grid after residents cast 1,547 votes, and the piece it had called Monterrey became Palm Trails. The line runs up California Boulevard on the west, along Crosstown Parkway on the north, down Cashmere and Del Rio boulevards on the east and along the C-24 canal on the south: about 1,323 acres between Interstate 95 and Florida's Turnpike. Whether people here use the name day to day was not checked.
It is a place of families and owners. The 2020 census counted 8,416 residents, up about 24% from 6,797 on the same ground in 2010, and 2,045 of them, 24%, were under 18. Owners lived in 80% of the 2,793 occupied homes; 568 were rented. Inside the line are Oak Hammock K-8 on California Boulevard and Apache Park, which is open space with two benches and no restrooms. There is no store, no community center and only one bus stop inside. What makes the location lies just beyond it: St. Lucie West across Crosstown Parkway, with Clover Park and its schools, and Tradition across the interstate, with Cleveland Clinic's hospital and Tradition Square.
Water is not the worry it is on the river. FEMA's effective map, a 2012 panel, puts none of the area and none of the residents in the 1% annual chance flood zone, and the County's hurricane evacuation map puts no one in a zone. That does not mean dry streets: the C-24 canal runs along the southern edge, rain drains 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 Irma left 10.36 inches at a Port St. Lucie gauge in September 2017. The City lists the land west of the interstate from Becker Road to Tradition as a repetitive loss area; this side is not on that list. A homeowners policy does not cover rising water, so price a flood policy even in Zone X.
No price index follows the line. Every resident is in ZIP code 34953, where Zillow's typical value was $397,936 in August 2026, down 0.4% on the year, but the ZIP held 77,023 people in 2020. Every City address pays the same seventeen levies, 22.3097 mills for 2025, and no community development district touches this ground, unlike Tradition and St. Lucie West next door. A homesteaded buyer at the ZIP's figure owes about $7,920 a year on the base exemption amounts; a landlord owes about $8,878. The City's solid waste and stormwater assessments add $671 for 2026-27, and no exemption reduces them. Save Our Homes resets on sale, so the seller's bill understates yours. The arithmetic is on the Port St. Lucie page.
Check the pipes. The area is inside Port St. Lucie Utility Systems' water and sewer territory, but which lots are still on a well and septic tank was not read. Converting outside the City's old assessment districts costs $18,821, or $151 a month for ten years.
- Rank Oak Hammock K-8 during the district's open enrollment; living beside it does not assign you to it
- Ask whether the house is on City water and sewer or still on a well and septic tank
- Estimate the tax at your purchase price and add the City's solid waste and stormwater assessments
- Price a separate flood policy even in Zone X, and look at the swale and culvert out front
How Palm Trails got here
- 1958General Development Corporation buys the River Park development and 40,000 acres along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River.
- 1961Port St. Lucie becomes a city on 27 April, with the passage of House Bill No. 953.
- 1990sCore Communities acquires and begins planning St. Lucie West, the master-planned community north of today's Crosstown Parkway, in the early 1990s.
- 1993Turtle Run Park opens on Cameo Boulevard, east of the line, in the year the City's parks layer records; William McChesney Park follows across Crosstown Parkway in 1995.
- 2000Oak Hammock Park, 48.7 acres west of California Boulevard, opens by the same layer.
- 2004Hurricanes Frances, on 5 September, and Jeanne, on 26 September, both come ashore at the southern end of Hutchinson Island, east of Stuart.
- 2017Hurricane Irma's rain, 9 to 12 September: 10.36 inches at a Port St. Lucie gauge and 21.66 near Fort Pierce, the most in the state.
- 2018On 17 February the City names 17 neighborhoods after residents cast 1,547 votes; Monterrey becomes Palm Trails.
- 2019Crosstown Parkway, the northern edge, is completed in October as an east-west road from Interstate 95 to US 1.
- 2020The census counts 8,416 residents and 2,880 homes inside the line; 2,045 residents are under 18.
- 2025Stars and Stripes Park, 26.5 acres with a trail and open lawn, is established in Tradition, on the City's parks layer.
- 2026Oak Hammock K-8 is graded C after B the year before; St. Lucie West Centennial High, the assigned high school for every resident, is graded B for the third year running.
Open space inside, the playing fields just outside
Apache Park, the City park inside the line, is open space with benches, open 8 a.m. to sunset. The fields are outside: William McChesney Park across Crosstown Parkway has 25 acres of lit soccer fields and a playground, Turtle Run Park to the east has a ball field and volleyball, and Oak Hammock Park, 48.7 acres west of California Boulevard, has a trail, fishing and a boat launch. The photographs are Stars and Stripes Park and Lake Tradition in Tradition and the Botanical Gardens across the North Fork.
What the map does not show: Crosstown Parkway and California Boulevard sit between most houses and the playing fields, so the short walk on the table includes a wide road to cross.
Elsewhere in Port St. Lucie, not Palm Trails
23 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 23 places, nearest first.
Method: straight lines from the population-weighted center of the 2020 census blocks inside the line, times a road factor of 1.32, with a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
Nothing with weights is inside the line. The City's indoor court, the Robert E. Minsky Gymnasium, is south of the C-24 canal, and its nearest fitness room is in the Community Center on Airoso Boulevard, east toward City Hall.
- Robert E. Minsky Gymnasium: about 5.5 km, open daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Community Fitness & Wellness Center: about 5.5 km, weekdays to 7:30 p.m.
- William McChesney Park: about 2.3 km, lit soccer fields
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Robert E. Minsky Gymnasium open | The City's 8,000-square-foot gym at 750 SW Darwin Boulevard in Whispering Pines Park, south of the C-24: one full basketball court or two volleyball courts, open daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. | 8–11 min |
| Community Fitness & Wellness Center open | The City's fitness room in the Community Center at 2195 SE Airoso Boulevard: treadmills, ellipticals, rowers, bikes, free weights and Life Fitness strength machines, 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to noon at weekends. The City's page gives no prices. | 8–12 min |
| William McChesney Park open | The free option across Crosstown Parkway: 25 acres with lit soccer fields and a playground. | 5–7 min |
The free option is William McChesney Park, across Crosstown Parkway, with lit fields and a playground.
A K-8 inside the line that no address is zoned to
Every address is in St. Lucie Public Schools, which runs choice from kindergarten to grade 8. Every resident is in the Red zone, whose list for ZIP 34953 names nine schools, among them Oak Hammock K-8, inside the line and graded C for 2026 after B for 2025, and St. Lucie West K-8 and Manatee Academy K-8, both graded B. High schools are assigned by address, and the locator assigns St. Lucie West Centennial High, graded B for three years, to every resident.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Oak Hammock K-8 School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 1251 SW California Boulevard, inside the line on its western edge, kindergarten to grade 8: graded C for 2026, B for 2025 and C for 2024. St. Lucie Public Schools runs choice from kindergarten to grade 8, so no address here is zoned to it, even the houses beside it. Every resident is in the Red zone, and the district's sheet for ZIP 34953 lists nine Red schools: Bayshore Elementary, Windmill Point Elementary, and Palm Pointe, Allapattah Flats, Manatee Academy, Oak Hammock, St. Lucie West, Tradition Lakes and Westgate K-8s. |
| St. Lucie West K-8 School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 1501 SW Cashmere Boulevard, across Crosstown Parkway, about 1.7 km from the reference point in a straight line: graded B for 2026, A for 2025 and B for 2024, on the Red list. |
| Manatee Academy K-8 | St. Lucie Public Schools | 1450 SW Heatherwood Boulevard, about 2.4 km in a straight line: graded B for 2026, 2025 and 2024, on the Red list. Wait lists go to siblings first, then to children who live less than 2 miles from their first choice. |
| St. Lucie West Centennial High School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 1485 SW Cashmere Boulevard, grades 9 to 12: high schools are assigned by address, and the district's SchoolSite Locator assigns it at the reference point and to all 8,416 residents. Graded B for 2026, 2025 and 2024. Grades come from the state's 2026 file as CBS12 republished it, because the Department of Education's site refused automated requests; run your own address in the locator. |
Run your own address. Wait lists favor siblings, then children within 2 miles of their first choice. Check the high school in the district's SchoolSite Locator; 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 at Treasure Coast International Airport in Fort Pierce, about 24 km north, on the 1991 to 2020 normals, with about one night a year at or below freezing
- If you bought last year, the homestead exemption is due with the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser by 1 March
- Spring training: the New York Mets play their home games at Clover Park, about 7 km north, in February and March
- The driest month on the normals, about 55 mm of rain, with highs near 24 °C
- 1 March is the deadline for the homestead exemption and for portability of a previous Florida homestead's Save Our Homes benefit
- Highs near 26 °C and about 73 mm of rain
- The St. Lucie Earth Day Festival at the Oxbow Eco-Center is on Saturday 17 April 2027, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Highs near 28 °C and about 77 mm of rain
- About 100 mm of rain as the wet season starts, with highs near 30 °C
- The swale and driveway culvert in front of a house are the owner's to keep clear, and May is the month to do it
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November
- The summer afternoon storms begin: about 170 mm of rain, and about 13 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, most 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 normals, about 176 mm, with about 19 days reaching 32 °C
- The City's budget hearing is at City Hall, 121 SW Port St. Lucie Boulevard: 14 September in 2026, 5:30 p.m.
- Irma's rain fell here from 9 to 12 September 2017; about 159 mm in an average September
- The City's fiscal year starts on 1 October, with the solid waste assessment at $482.16 a home for 2026-27
- Hurricane season still has two months to run; about 133 mm of rain and highs near 29 °C
- Tax bills arrive in November; the 3 November 2026 ballot carries a constitutional amendment that would raise the non-school homestead exemption from 2027 if 60% of voters approve
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November; about 77 mm of rain
- Tradition's annual tree lighting at Tradition Square is on Friday 4 December 2026, 5 to 9 p.m.
- Highs near 24 °C and about 59 mm of rain
1 more photograph of Port St. Lucie and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Port St. Lucie photo library, not photographs of Palm Trails itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–1 of 1 photographs.
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 Palm Trails.