City Manager's Annual Report 2017 | A Year In Review | Page 16
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5.
NICE
PROGRAM AND
NEIGHBORHOOD
PLANNING
C O M M U N I T Y E N G A G E M E N T
The City of Port St. Lucie’s Neighborhood Improvement and Community Engagement
(NICE) program aims to achieve the City’s strategic goal of promoting vibrant
neighborhoods and a high quality of life.
This new program gives residents a chance to name their own neighborhoods and join
together to improve their communities with the support of City staff. The program also
empowers communities by giving them a united, collective voice when working with the
City on issues, concerns and needs.
This program builds upon the City’s neighborhood planning efforts in which the Planning
and Zoning Department and its consultant have been working with communities for
several years determining the goals and visions for their neighborhoods. In 2017, the
Planning and Zoning staff completed plans for areas 6 and 7, which are in eastern Port St.
Lucie, east of the St. Lucie River.
The Neighborhood Services Department launched the NICE program in 2017 to help
implement these plans and has officially named four of the approximately 27 communities
since its inception. Those communities are Canal Pointe, Woodland Trails,
Cashmere Cove and Oak Hammock. The remaining communities
will all be named in the beginning of 2018 during the “New Year,
New Name” campaign that focuses on speeding up the naming
ART
process and implementing neighborhood identities sooner.
PUBLIC
ADVISORY BOARD
In 2017, the City Council re-instated
the Public Art Advisory Board.
Board members have the responsibility
to generate a public art master plan for
review and approval by the Planning
and Zoning Board and City Council and
make recommendations on specific
public art projects, including the
selection of works of art, architectural
enhancements and special
landscape treatments.
After the naming process is complete, Community
Improvement Plans will be conceptualized collaboratively
with City staff and the established neighborhood’s
association. The plans cloud include improvements such as
parks, entry signs, fitness stations, street trees and more.
Another major concept of the NICE Program is Utility Box
Cover Art. More than 50 of these visual enhancements have
been completed at intersections city-wide, and there are at
least 50 more to come in 2018.
As part of a commitment to uphold environmental stewardship,
the City’s robust recycling program generates the revenue for
these NICE neighborhood improvements, using minimal tax dollars.
One of the City’s most exciting success stories was the groundbreaking
of Woodland Trails Park last December, which was completely funded
with recycling revenue. The more residents recycle, the more the City
can do to put this revenue back into PSL’s flourishing neighborhoods.
UTILITY BOX COVER ART
IS PAID FOR WITH
THE CITY’S RECYCLING REVENUE.
CITY OF PORT ST. LUCIE
A N N U A L R E P O R T 2017