Turnpike Widening From Stuart to the St. Lucie Line: What Martin County Owners Can Recover

The Turnpike widening from Stuart to the St. Lucie County line is funded to buy private land, and none of that money is authorized or committed. FDOT’s adopted work program for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 puts $47,120,441 into right-of-way purchase on this Martin County segment, in fiscal years 2030 and 2031.

The years between programming and acquisition are when an owner can still document conditions on their own terms, and that window closes when the right-of-way phase opens.

Our Florida eminent domain attorneys read corridor projects at the work program item level, because that is where the funding appears.

When Is FDOT Scheduled to Buy Land Between Stuart and the St. Lucie County Line?

Fiscal years 2030 and 2031. FDOT carries the project as item 446333-1, “WIDEN TPK(SR91), STUART/SR714 TO ST.LUCIE C/L (4TO8)”: a four-lane-to-eight-lane widening running north from the SW Martin Highway (SR 714) interchange to the county line. FDOT’s fiscal year 2026 through 2030 program described the same item as milepost 134.8 to milepost 138.08, roughly three and a quarter miles.

Right-of-way phases funded on that item:

• Purchase: $17,120,441 in fiscal year 2030 and $30,000,000 in fiscal year 2031
• Relocation: $100,000 in fiscal year 2030 and $350,000 in fiscal year 2031
• Consultant and support services: about $380,000 across fiscal years 2027, 2029, 2030, and 2031

Nearly $48 million across all right-of-way phases on three and a quarter miles is substantial, and FDOT shows none of it authorized or committed. No construction phase is funded on this item. FDOT’s earliest listed construction year for the segment is 2032, the first year past the program’s end and an estimate rather than an appropriation.

Does Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise Say This Project Is Unfunded?

Its project page does, and that page trails the funding record. The Treasure Coast Turnpike Mainline Widening Projects run from Jupiter (Indiantown Road) to Okeechobee Road (State Road 70) across Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie counties, and the page says “Currently, none of these projects are funded for Right-of-Way acquisition or Construction,” and that the schedule “will be updated to reflect start dates for Right-of-Way acquisition and Construction” as funding becomes available (Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise). FDOT adopts a new program each July, and the adopted fiscal year 2027 through 2031 program funds right-of-way purchase on item 446333-1 (FDOT Office of Work Program and Budget).

An owner relying on a project summary page can be a full funding cycle behind. Ask FDOT by item number.

Which Treasure Coast Segments Carry Right-of-Way Money?

Two, and they sit on either side of the county line. Item 446333-1 is the Martin County half. Item 446334-1 runs from the county line north to Becker Road in St. Lucie County, with $8,808,763 for purchase and $322,200 for relocation, also in fiscal years 2030 and 2031.

North of Becker Road the mainline segments carry design and environmental money only, with no right-of-way phase: item 446335-1 to Crosstown Parkway, item 446583-1 to Midway Road, and item 446580-1 to State Road 70.

That does not mean nothing is being acquired north of Becker Road. At milepost 150, the Midway Road southern ramps interchange, item 451858-1, carries $3,684,994 in right-of-way purchase, $112,400 in relocation, and a $27.1 million construction contract in fiscal year 2027. Nearer Stuart, interchange improvements at SW Martin Highway, item 446165-1, carry $100,000 in purchase in fiscal year 2029, with an earliest listed construction year of 2041.

Only an item-by-item read shows that split, as with the statewide Turnpike widening program, the Palmetto Expressway, and I-10 in Northwest Florida.

What Can Martin County Owners Recover in a Turnpike Taking?

More than the market value of the dirt FDOT needs. Section 73.071(3) directs the jury to determine solely the amount of compensation, in three parts.

The Value of What Is Taken, Plus Damage to What Is Left

Paragraph (3)(a) covers the value of the property sought to be appropriated. Paragraph (3)(b) adds, where less than the entire property is taken, any damages to the remainder caused by the taking. On a widening the remainder damage is often the larger number: lost parking, a relocated driveway, a truck turn that no longer works, or a building left too close to the travel lanes. Those are severance damages. Paragraph (3)(c) covers reasonable removal or relocation expenses, capped at replacement value, where a mobile home sits on the property taken.

Business Damages If You Operate on the Remainder

Paragraph 73.071(3)(b) also reaches business damages, and all of these must line up:

1. The taking is partial, in a condemnation of a right-of-way.
2. The condemnor is FDOT, a county, a municipality, a board, a district, or another public body. FDOT acquiring Turnpike right-of-way qualifies; a private condemnor does not.
3. It is an established business of more than five years’ standing for takings on or after January 1, 2005, and more than four years for earlier takings.
4. It is owned by the party whose land is taken and sits on adjoining land that party owns or holds.
5. You plead it. The statute requires the claimant to set forth the nature and extent of the damages in its written defenses.

The statute sets a duration test, so a business short of five years when a project is programmed may satisfy it before acquisition begins. The presuit claim deadline is a separate clock that runs from the notice. Our explanation of business damages under section 73.071 covers how the number is proven.

Who Pays Your Attorney

The condemning authority, on the terms section 73.092 sets. Except as that section and section 73.015 otherwise provide, the court awards attorney’s fees based solely on the benefits achieved for the client: 33 percent of any benefit up to $250,000, 25 percent of any portion between $250,000 and $1 million, and 20 percent of any portion above $1 million. Benefits are the difference, exclusive of interest, between the judgment or settlement and the last written offer made before you hired an attorney; if there was none, the first written offer afterward sets the baseline. Fees for defeating an order of taking and for other supplemental proceedings are set on a reasonable-fee basis instead.

Because the fee turns on the benefit achieved over the authority’s offer, the sequence of offer and engagement changes how it is calculated. If an offer has arrived, read our guide on what to know before accepting it.

What Deadlines Run Once FDOT’s Letter Arrives?

Four, and they do not all start from the same event.

• At least 30 days to respond. Section 73.015(1)(b) gives the owner at least 30 days after receiving the presuit notice, or after it is returned undeliverable, before FDOT can file suit.
• Fifteen business days for the appraisal. Section 73.015(1)(a)3. requires the authority to furnish its appraisal within 15 business days after receiving your request, plus right-of-way maps and construction plans to the extent prepared. That clock runs from your request, not from the letter.
• One hundred eighty days for a business damage offer. Under section 73.015(2)(c), a business owner has 180 days from receipt, from return as undeliverable, or from a later agreed date, to submit a written offer stating the nature, extent, and amount of the damage, substantiated by business records and prepared by the owner, a CPA, or a business damage expert familiar with the operations. A late claim must be struck absent a good-faith justification, and on that showing the court must grant up to 180 more days.
• One hundred twenty days for the authority to answer. Section 73.015(2)(d) gives it 120 days after receipt, and failure to respond is deemed a counteroffer of zero dollars.

FDOT can also take title before the case ends. See the quick-take process and its deadlines and how to read an FDOT order of taking.

Why the Years Before the Offer Decide the Number

Because section 73.071(5) runs against unprepared owners. It excludes any change in value resulting solely from knowledge of the project location, and presumes the scope is known in the market once the condemnor executes a resolution depicting that location. Once that presumption attaches, the evidence you did not gather earlier is hard to reconstruct.

Steps that hold their value whenever the offer lands:

• Document access, parking count, circulation, and signage before any offer arrives, with dated photographs and a site plan.
• Keep clean, ordinary-course financial records. A business damage offer must be substantiated by them.
• Do not reconfigure access, expand, or re-stripe on a rumored design. Get the plan sheets first.
• Follow the Real Estate Development, Sales and Leasing Industry Legal Blog, see how early legal action can limit a taking, and for homeowners, what just compensation means.

Working With Jimerson Birr on Treasure Coast Turnpike Takings

Jimerson Birr represents Florida property and business owners in condemnation matters brought by the state, counties, municipalities, and utilities. We research corridor projects at the work program item level and publish what we find, so you walk into the first meeting knowing how your project is funded and scheduled.

If you own land, a building, or a business along the Turnpike in Martin or St. Lucie County, we can tell you whether your parcel sits in a funded right-of-way segment or a design-only one, and what to preserve before an appraiser arrives. Our real estate development and construction team works with our condemnation lawyers on the access, parking, and site-plan questions that drive remainder value.

Contact Jimerson Birr before you respond to a presuit notice. Section 73.015(1)(b) gives you at least 30 days after the notice reaches you, or after it is returned undeliverable, and what you document then is easier to prove than what you reconstruct later.