Live in Tradition
The master-planned town west of Interstate 95 that Core Communities began in 2006 and Mattamy Homes has been building out since 2018, where 97% of the 2020 residents lived inside a community development district, so every bill carries a district's lines beside the seventeen levies every City address pays, and where the Southern Grove districts alone now bill some 4,800 homes and apartments on ground that held 626 in 2020.
Tradition is the name Core Communities gave the community it started west of the Gatlin Boulevard interchange on Interstate 95 in 2006, after St. Lucie West; its town center is Tradition Square, and a 150-acre research park opened there in 2008. Mattamy Homes bought 2,780 acres of its residential land with 7,800 home sites in July 2018 and is still building, and the Southern Grove districts in its southern half carry Del Webb, Heron Preserve, Telaro, Kenley and Belterra homes, apartment complexes, a Costco and a Lowe's among the property on their roll. The 2020 census counted 10,189 residents and 5,336 homes on the City's line, three times the 3,281 on the same ground in 2010, and 9,926 of them lived inside a community development district; the place has grown a great deal since, and no official count after 2020 has been published. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 34987, which holds every resident, was $447,511 in August 2026, down 2.0% on the year; seven in ten of the ZIP's 2020 residents lived in this guide, so it is closer to a Tradition figure than most ZIP figures are, but it is still not one.
A developer's town, still being built, with a district on almost every bill
The Tradition feature on the map the City of Port St. Lucie's Neighborhood Services department keeps for its NICE program (Neighborhood Improvement and Community Engagement; the NS_NEIGHBORHOODS layer, OBJECTID 36, planning area 9), clipped to the City's current limits as St. Lucie County's Municipal Boundaries layer draws them: about 8,289 acres, all of it west of Interstate 95. The name is the developer's, which the City's map uses. Traced against the City's road layer, Crosstown Parkway is the northern edge from Village Parkway west; past the middle of the parkway the line runs a little south of it, so the strip that holds Legacy High School is in Verano, and Range Line Road is the whole western edge. On the south a line with no road runs east from Range Line Road to near Community Boulevard, with the City's Riverland/Kennedy neighborhood below it; from there Tradition reaches south to the city's southern limit near the Martin County line, with Becker Road along its southern edge. Interstate 95 is the eastern edge from there north to about Tradition Parkway, where the line turns west around the City's Fairgreen Crossings neighborhood to Village Parkway, the eastern edge the rest of the way to Crosstown Parkway. Tradition Parkway, Village Parkway, Community Boulevard, Becker Road and Westcliffe Lane run through it. Southern Grove, which has no neighborhood of its own on the City's map, is inside: all ten Southern Grove community development districts and all eleven Tradition districts lie within the line. The City's Sections layer puts 9,181 of the 2020 residents in its Tradition sections, 535 in Southern Grove's, 282 in Del Webb at Tradition and 191 in Promenade at Tradition. All of it is in St. Lucie County and St. Lucie Public Schools.
Tradition is a master-planned town, and its line on the City's map is the developer's. Core Communities, which had built St. Lucie West, began it in 2006 west of the Gatlin Boulevard interchange on Interstate 95, around a town center called Tradition Square. In July 2018 Mattamy Homes bought 2,780 acres of its residential land, with 7,800 home sites, to build out over ten to fifteen years. The City's map draws Tradition at about 8,289 acres, from Crosstown Parkway south to the city's limit near the Martin County line, and takes in Southern Grove. The 2020 census counted 10,189 residents, three times the 3,281 of 2010.
That count is a snapshot of a place under construction. No official figure after 2020 exists, but the districts' rolls show the building. The Southern Grove districts, in Tradition's southern half, billed 4,772 homes and apartments in May 2026, Del Webb, Heron Preserve, Telaro, Kenley and Belterra among them, where the census found 626 homes in 2020; a Costco and a Lowe's are on the same roll. Ask what the empty land beside a lot is platted for.
The deciding fact is the district. In 2020, 97% of residents lived inside a community development district, a special government that borrowed for roads, lakes and drainage and repays the bonds through assessments on the county tax bill. For fiscal 2027 the Tradition districts charge a house $439.51 to run districts 3 to 6 and $967.80 in 7 to 11, plus $715.89 where it carries the 2014 bonds, until 2035. In Southern Grove the running cost is $178.95 and the debt line $466.79 to $754.31 by neighborhood and lot width, and the City's Southwest Annexation assessment bills 2,415 properties there through fiscal 2044-45. A builder's contract must disclose a district in bold; a resale contract need not. Read the parcel's record with the property appraiser and its last bill with the tax collector.
Then the levies everyone in the city pays. Every resident is in ZIP code 34987, where Zillow's typical value was $447,511 in August 2026, down 2.0%; seven in ten of the ZIP's residents lived in this guide, so it is close to a Tradition price, but not one. At that value the seventeen levies, 22.3097 mills for 2025, come to about $9,026 for a homesteaded buyer on the base exemption amounts and $9,984 for a landlord. The City's solid waste and stormwater assessments add $671, and a house in districts 3 to 6 with the 2014 bonds $1,155.40, which no exemption reduces. Save Our Homes ends with a sale, so the seller's bill understates yours; the arithmetic is on the Port St. Lucie page.
The flood map is clear, and the City's own list is not. FEMA puts none of Tradition in the 1% annual chance flood zone, and no resident is in a hurricane evacuation zone, but the City names the land just west of Interstate 95 from about Becker Road to Tradition among its repetitive loss areas. Irma's rain in 2017, 10.36 inches on a Port St. Lucie gauge, is the storm that tests lakes and swales, and a homeowners policy does not cover rising water. Water and sewer are the City's. Route 5 stops once inside the line, fare-free and hourly, and ART's door-to-door On Demand Zone 1 covers the rest.
- Read the parcel's last tax bill for every non-ad valorem line
- Ask which district and bond series the lot carries before comparing two houses
- Estimate the tax at your purchase price: the seller's Save Our Homes cap ends with the sale
- Price a flood policy anyway: the City lists this ground as a repetitive loss area
How Tradition got here
- 1961Port St. Lucie becomes a city on 27 April, three years after General Development Corporation bought 40,000 acres along the North Fork, well east of what is now Tradition.
- 2002St. Lucie County creates Tradition community development districts 1 to 4 on 26 March; Tradition #6 and Southern Grove #5 follow on 4 February 2003.
- 2006Core Communities, which had built St. Lucie West from the early 1990s, starts developing Tradition west of the Gatlin Boulevard interchange, in Wikipedia's account; the City creates Tradition districts 5 and 7 to 10 on 25 September.
- 2007The City creates Southern Grove districts 1 to 4 and 6 on 9 April, for the land in Tradition's southern half.
- 2008Tradition and Core Communities welcome the Florida Center of Innovation, later the Tradition Center for Innovation, a 150-acre research park.
- 2010The census counts 3,281 residents and 1,778 homes on the ground the City's line now covers.
- 2014The Tradition districts issue $53,170,000 of Series 2014 bonds in April, repaid through assessments until May 2035.
- 2018Mattamy Homes announces on 5 July that it has bought 2,780 acres of residential land with 7,800 home sites and 150 acres of commercial land in Tradition, to build out over 10 to 15 years; its release counts a newly opened 177-bed hospital.
- 2019Crosstown Parkway, Tradition's northern edge near the interstate, is completed in October from Interstate 95 to US 1.
- 2020The census counts 10,189 residents and 5,336 homes, 677 of them vacant, with owners in 79% of the occupied homes.
- 2021The Tradition districts issue $17,755,000 of Series 2021 bonds in July, to May 2052.
- 2022The City creates Southern Grove districts 7 to 10 on 14 November; Tradition #11 follows on 13 March 2023.
- 2025The Tradition districts issue $16,595,000 of Series 2025 bonds in March, to May 2056. Legacy High School opens on 11 August off Crosstown Parkway, 323 m outside the line in Verano, as the high school for all of Tradition.
- 2026Stars and Stripes Park opens on 4 June. On 2 September the Tradition districts adopt their fiscal 2027 assessments, and the Southern Grove districts' roll counts 4,772 homes and apartments.
A new City park inside the line, and a bigger one still to come
Stars and Stripes Park, 26.5 acres on Village Parkway that the City developed with Mattamy Homes, opened on 4 June 2026: walking trails, a waving flag sculpture and lit stars honoring veterans and first responders, open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tradition Regional Park, 110 acres on Tradition Parkway, is on the City's map but not yet open; its BMX track is expected in late 2026 or early 2027.
What the map does not show: that the lakes are the districts' stormwater system: lake maintenance, bank restoration and stormwater management are lines in their budgets, and so on your bill.
Elsewhere in Port St. Lucie, not Tradition
20 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 20 places, nearest first.
Method: straight lines from the population-weighted center of Tradition's 2020 census blocks, times a road factor, with a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The City runs no recreation center or pool west of the interstate. The nearest are the Robert E. Minsky Gymnasium on Darwin Boulevard, about 10 km by road, and the County's Ravenswood Community Pool, about 13.5 km.
- Robert E. Minsky Gymnasium: about 10 km by road
- Port St. Lucie Community Center: about 13 km
- MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center fitness center: about 18.5 km, open seven days
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Robert E. Minsky Gymnasium open | The nearest of the City's three indoor recreation centers, at 800 SW Darwin Boulevard beside Whispering Pines Park, about 7.7 km away in a straight line across the interstate. | 11–16 min |
| Port St. Lucie Community Center open | The City's community center at 2195 SE Airoso Boulevard, about 9.9 km east in a straight line. | 14–21 min |
| MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center open | The City's Fitness & Wellness Center at 9221 SE Event Center Place, about 14 km east in a straight line: strength, cardio and free weights, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at weekends. | 16–23 min |
| Ravenswood Community Pool open | St. Lucie County's pool at 400 SW Ravenswood Lane, the only public pool the County's parks layer lists in the city; its season and hours were not on any page that could be read. | 15–22 min |
| Stars and Stripes Park open | The free option, inside the line: walking trails around ponds on 26.5 acres, open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 8–12 min |
The free option is inside the line: the trails at Stars and Stripes Park, open until 10 p.m.
One high school by address, everything younger by choice
Every address is in St. Lucie Public Schools. High schools are assigned by address, and the district's locator sends all of Tradition to Legacy High School, which opened in August 2025 just over the line in Verano and was graded B for 2026. From kindergarten to grade 8 the district runs choice: ZIP 34987 is in the Red zone, whose list includes Palm Pointe, inside the line and graded A, and Allapattah Flats K-8, graded A.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy High School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 14505 SW Crosstown Parkway, grades 9 to 12, just outside the line in Verano: the high school St. Lucie Public Schools' SchoolSite Locator assigns at the reference point and for all 10,189 residents' study areas, and the district's ZIP sheet sends all of 34987 there. It opened on 11 August 2025 with 1,500 students in grades 9 to 11, adding grade 12 a year later, and was graded B by the state for 2026, its only grade so far. High schools are assigned by address, so confirm the address in the locator. |
| Palm Pointe Educational Research School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 10680 SW Academic Way, inside the line, kindergarten to grade 8, about 0.9 km from the reference point: graded A for 2026 and 2025. It is one of nine schools on the list for Transportation Service Area Red 2, which covers ZIP 34987, with Allapattah Flats K-8 (A), Manatee Academy K-8 (B), Oak Hammock K-8, St. Lucie West K-8, Westgate K-8, Bayshore and Windmill Point elementary schools and the new Tradition Lakes K-8. There is no zoned elementary or middle school: a family ranks the Red zone's schools during enrollment, and a wait list favors siblings and then children living within 2 miles. |
| Renaissance Charter School at Tradition and Tradition Preparatory High School | Charter schools in St. Lucie Public Schools | 10900 and 10970 SW Tradition Parkway, side by side inside the line, the first a school for younger grades and the second a high school, both open by application rather than by address. Both were graded C for 2026, B for 2025 and C for 2024. |
Run your own address. A school inside the line is not a guaranteed place: families rank the Red zone's schools, and wait lists favor siblings, then children within 2 miles. Grades are the state's, via CBS12.
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 the Fort Pierce airport, the nearest station with 1991 to 2020 normals, about 26 km north; about one night in the month at or below freezing
- Bought in the past year? The homestead exemption application is due with the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser by 1 March
- About 55 mm of rain, the least of the year, and highs near 24 °C
- The New York Mets open spring training at Clover Park in St. Lucie West, about 9 km by road: home games from 19 February 2027
- If you bought last year, the homestead exemption is due with the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser by 1 March
- 1 March is the deadline for the homestead exemption and for portability of a Save Our Homes benefit
- The Mets' last home game at Clover Park is 20 March 2027
- Highs near 26 °C and about 73 mm of rain
- Highs near 28 °C and about 77 mm of rain
- A good month to walk a lot and its swale before an offer: the swale and driveway culvert are the owner's to keep clear
- Rain climbs to about 100 mm as the afternoon storms start
- Highs near 30 °C, with about five days reaching 32 °C
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November
- About 170 mm of rain, most of it in afternoon thunderstorms
- Stars and Stripes Park opened on 4 June 2026
- Highs near 32 °C and lows near 23 °C, with about 18 days reaching 32 °C
- About 149 mm of rain, mostly in afternoon storms
- The property appraiser mails the TRIM notice of proposed taxes in mid-August, with the district assessments on it; petitions to the Value Adjustment Board were due by 8 September in 2026
- The wettest month on the normal, about 176 mm
- Schools start: Legacy High opened on 11 August 2025
- The Tradition districts hold their budget hearing: the fiscal 2027 assessments were adopted on 2 September 2026; the City's own hearing was on 14 September
- The Atlantic season peaks in September; Irma's rain in September 2017 put 10.36 inches on a Port St. Lucie gauge
- About 159 mm of rain
- The City's and the districts' fiscal year starts on 1 October: the City's solid waste assessment is $482.16 a home for 2026-27, on the November bill
- Highs near 29 °C and lows near 20 °C
- About 133 mm of rain, and hurricane season has two months to run
- Tax bills arrive in November, with every district line on them
- On 3 November 2026 voters decide a constitutional amendment that would raise the non-school homestead exemption from 2027 if 60% approve
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November, and the dry season begins: about 77 mm of rain
- Tradition's annual tree lighting at Tradition Square is on Friday 4 December 2026, 5 to 9 p.m., and its New Year celebration on 31 December
- Highs near 24 °C and lows near 13 °C, and about 59 mm of rain
2 more photographs of Port St. Lucie and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Port St. Lucie photo library, not photographs of Tradition itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–2 of 2 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 Tradition.