Live in Verano
The Kolter Group's gated PGA Village Verano on Crosstown Parkway west of Interstate 95, where every one of the 1,481 residents the 2020 census counted lived inside one of six community development districts, a 40-foot lot in Verano #1 carries $1,170.02 to $1,311.70 a year in district assessments on top of the seventeen levies every City address pays, half the district land still held no one in 2020, and the new Legacy High School is inside the line.
Verano is six community development districts the City of Port St. Lucie created in April 2005 on about 3,060 acres between Interstate 95 and Range Line Road, and the City's neighborhood map draws its line almost exactly around them. Almost everyone who lives there lives in PGA Village Verano, the gated community the Kolter Group develops, whose residents get a social membership to the PGA Golf Club across the city line in the Reserve. The 2020 census counted 1,481 residents and 949 homes, up from 880 residents on about the same ground in 2010; owners lived in 95% of the occupied homes, 18% of the homes stood empty on census day, a figure that includes seasonal homes, and only 5% of residents were under 18. Building has continued since, and no official count after 2020 has been published. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 34986 was $372,418 in August 2026, down 3.0% on the year, but that ZIP is mostly St. Lucie West and Torino and held 30,027 people in 2020, 1,358 of them here, so it is not a Verano price.
Six districts drawn in 2005, one gated community, and most of the land still to come
The Verano 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 5, planning area 10), clipped to the City's current limits as St. Lucie County's Municipal Boundaries layer draws them: about 3,230 acres, all of it west of Interstate 95. The name is the districts' and the developer's, which the City's map uses. Traced against the City's road layer, Interstate 95 is the eastern edge, with Commerce Center Parkway running inside it, and Range Line Road and Glades Cut-Off Road are the western edge, with unincorporated St. Lucie County beyond. Crosstown Parkway crosses the southern part from the interstate west; the line with Tradition follows the parkway near the interstate and then runs a little south of it to Range Line Road, so Legacy High School, on the parkway, is in Verano. On the north and northeast the line meets the Reserve, the unincorporated enclave that holds the PGA Golf Club, and the City's Copper Creek neighborhood; St. Lucie West is across the interstate. All six Verano districts, #1 to #5 and Verano Center, lie inside the line, and the City's Subdivisions layer puts 1,440 of the 1,481 residents of 2020 in PGA Village Verano. All of it is in St. Lucie County, St. Lucie Public Schools and City Council District 2.
Verano began as a set of tax districts, and the City's neighborhood line follows them. In April 2005 the City Council created six community development districts, Verano #1 to #5 and Verano Center, on about 3,060 acres between Interstate 95 and Range Line Road, north and south of what is now Crosstown Parkway. The City's map draws Verano at about 3,230 acres around them. Nearly everyone who lives there lives in PGA Village Verano, the gated community the Kolter Group develops: 1,440 of the 1,481 residents of 2020. The PGA Golf Club next door is not in the city but in the Reserve, an unincorporated enclave; Kolter says residents get a social membership.
The census found a small community of owners, and much of the ground empty. The 2020 count was 1,481 residents in 949 homes, up from 880 on about the same ground in 2010. Owners lived in 95% of the occupied homes, 18% of the homes stood empty on census day, seasonal homes among them, and only 5% of residents were under 18. Building has continued: Verano #1 now bills 1,038 homes, against 852 on its 2020 blocks. Verano #3, #4 and #5, about 1,600 acres, held no one in 2020; their budgets were not read, and no official count after 2020 exists, so how much stands there now is not known here.
Every lot pays a district, and the bill depends on its width and its bonds. A district borrows for roads, lakes and drainage and repays the bonds through assessments on the county tax bill. For fiscal 2027 Verano #1 charges a 40-foot lot $1,311.70 where it carries the district's 2015 bonds and $1,170.02 where it carries the 2017 bonds, and a 60-foot lot $1,745.81 or $1,557.37, unchanged on the year. Verano Center assesses only its two commercial parcels, the Publix among them. What Verano #2 to #5 and the homeowners association charge was not read. A builder's contract must disclose a district in bold; a resale contract need not, so read the parcel's last bill with the tax collector.
No price index fits Verano. ZIP code 34986 holds 92% of the residents, and Zillow's typical value there was $372,418 in August 2026, down 3.0% on the year, but the ZIP held 30,027 people in 2020, most of them in St. Lucie West and Torino. At that value the seventeen levies every City address pays, 22.3097 mills for 2025, come to about $7,350 for a homesteaded buyer on the $25,000 base exemption amounts and $8,309 for an owner who does not live there, as a seasonal owner may not. The City's solid waste and stormwater assessments add $671, and the district's lines come on top, 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 hazards are the ordinary ones, and so is the car. FEMA puts none of Verano in the 1% annual chance flood zone and no resident is in a hurricane evacuation zone, but Irma's rain in 2017, 10.36 inches on a Port St. Lucie gauge, tests any lake and swale, and a homeowners policy does not cover rising water. Water and sewer are the City's. No bus stops inside the line: the nearest, route 6 at Reserve Boulevard, is about 1.4 km from the reference point, fare-free and hourly, and ART's door-to-door On Demand Zone 2 covers the whole guide.
- Read the parcel's last tax bill for every non-ad valorem line, and get the association's dues in writing
- Ask which Verano district the lot is in: #2 to #5 were not read here
- Estimate the tax at your purchase price: the seller's Save Our Homes cap ends with the sale
- Confirm the high school in the district's locator: its ZIP sheet still names two others
How Verano got here
- 1961Port St. Lucie becomes a city on 27 April; the land that is now Verano lies well west of the General Development grid along the North Fork.
- 2005The City Council creates six community development districts, Verano #1 to #5 and Verano Center, by Ordinances 05-17 to 05-22, enacted on 25 April, on about 3,062 acres.
- 2010The census counts 880 residents and 586 homes on the ground the City's line now covers.
- 2015Verano #1's Series 2015 bonds are issued, and its Series 2017 bonds follow; the district still assesses lots for both.
- 2019Crosstown Parkway, which crosses Verano's southern part, is completed in October from Interstate 95 to US 1.
- 2020The census counts 1,481 residents and 949 homes, 173 of them empty on census day, with owners in 95% of the occupied homes; Verano #3 to #5 hold no one yet.
- 2025Legacy High School opens on 11 August off Crosstown Parkway, inside the line, with 1,500 students in grades 9 to 11.
- 2026Legacy High is graded B by the state, its first grade. Verano #1 adopts its fiscal 2027 budget, leaving its assessments unchanged, and puts 1,038 homes on its roll, against 852 on its 2020 census blocks.
No City park inside the line, and a ballpark across the interstate
The City's parks layer shows no park inside Verano; the open space is the gated community's own. The nearest City park is Oak Hammock Park, 48.7 acres across the interstate, and Clover Park, the Mets' spring home, is about 5 km by road.
What the map does not show: that the lakes are part of the districts' water management system, which Verano #1 lists first among what it maintains and its assessments pay for.
Elsewhere in Port St. Lucie, not Verano
17 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 17 places, nearest first.
Method: straight lines from the population-weighted center of Verano's 2020 census blocks, times a road factor, with a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The gym inside the line is private: the PGA Village Verano clubhouse, for residents. The City's nearest center is the Robert E. Minsky Gymnasium, about 12 km by road.
- Robert E. Minsky Gymnasium: about 12 km by road
- Ravenswood Community Pool: about 11 km, county-run, season not published
- Port St. Lucie Community Center: about 13 km
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| PGA Village Verano clubhouse open | For residents only, not a public facility: Kolter lists a 40,000-square-foot social and fitness area and a 27-court private pickleball center. Its cost is in the homeowners association's dues, which were not read. | in the community |
| 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 9.3 km away in a straight line. | 13–20 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 |
| 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. | 12–18 min |
| Oak Hammock Park open | The free option for anyone: a trail and fishing on 48.7 acres across the interstate. | 8–12 min |
The free option for anyone is Oak Hammock Park's trail, about 5 km by road.
A new high school inside the line, everything younger by choice
Every address is in St. Lucie Public Schools. Legacy High School, on Crosstown Parkway inside the line, opened in August 2025 and was graded B for 2026; the district's locator assigns it across the guide. From kindergarten to grade 8 the district runs choice: the ZIP is in the Red zone, whose list includes Allapattah Flats K-8, just north of the line,, graded A.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy High School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 14505 SW Crosstown Parkway, grades 9 to 12, inside the line: the high school St. Lucie Public Schools' SchoolSite Locator assigns at the reference point and for every 2020 resident's study area. It opened on 11 August 2025 with 1,500 students in grades 9 to 11 and was graded B by the state for 2026, its only grade so far. The district's older sheet of high schools by ZIP code still sends ZIP 34986 to Fort Pierce Central or St. Lucie West Centennial, so confirm the address in the locator, which works by address. |
| Allapattah Flats K-8 School | St. Lucie Public Schools | 12051 NW Copper Creek Drive, just north of the line, about 3 km from the reference point: graded A for 2026 and 2025, B for 2024. It is one of nine schools on the list for Transportation Service Area Red 2, which covers ZIPs 34986 and 34987, with Palm Pointe (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. |
Run your own address. The district's ZIP sheet still sends 34986 to Fort Pierce Central or St. Lucie West Centennial, so use the locator. 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 22 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, about 5 km by road in St. Lucie West: home games from 19 February 2027
- 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
- Seasonal owners start to leave: 18% of Verano's homes stood empty on census day, 1 April 2020
- 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
- Verano #1 adopts its budget for the next fiscal year in July; the fiscal 2027 assessments stayed where they were
- Highs near 32 °C and lows near 23 °C, with about 18 days reaching 32 °C
- 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 Atlantic season peaks in September; Irma's rain in September 2017 put 10.36 inches on a Port St. Lucie gauge
- The City holds its budget hearing in mid-September (14 September in 2026)
- 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
- 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 tree lighting at Tradition Square, about 5.5 km by road, is on Friday 4 December 2026, 5 to 9 p.m.
- 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 Verano 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 Verano.