Fort Pierce News, December 24, 1999, Page A1

City, county officially drop cargo from port profile

by Drew Dixon of the News staff

FORT PIERCE - The profile of the Port of Fort Pierce is changing, at least in the bureaucratic language and context of the facility. 

Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County are submitting a revised port profile to the Florida Ports Council, one that shies away from any cargo, industrial or Cruise-ship operations.

The council is a quasi-governmental board based in Tallahassee that lobbies for interests of the 14 deep-water ports in the state and administers funds for the Florida Seaport Transportation and Economic Development Program.

The revisions to the port profile is by design, said Ramon Trias, planning director for Fort Pierce and the man in charge of most of the revisions. 

"The ports council focused on cargo and warehouse uses," Trias said. "That's not consistent with the local interest. The consensus was (the port) would be mixed use. 

Nearly all references to cargo and cruise operations previously listed in the port profile are being eliminated. 

"That (cargo development) is not something that we're working on, the market is not there," Trias said. "It makes no sense to go out there looking for business operators when you don't have basic infrastructure. We haven't seen any interest from the private sector in (cargo) development."

Mike Rubin, vice president of the ports council, said changing the port profile for Fort Pierce isn't surprising.

"Obviously, Fort Pierce is coming out with a new plan and everyone will get that message," Rubin said. 

People in the maritime trade in and around Florida are already pretty aware that Fort Pierce is shying away from cargo development at the port, Rubin said, and officially changing the profile will reinforce that effort. It will also prohibit Fort Pierce from applying for funds the ports council administers. 

"The state statute really only allows (funding) for transportation, to the movement of goods or people," Rubin said.

The city isn't worried about losing those funds, Trias said, because the city has never applied for them before. 

"All of this (applying for ports council grants) is important only if the city and the county decide to pursue active development of the port, building an infrastructure for the port," he said.

The fact that cargo and industrial interests are being eliminated from a document that reaches far outside the area is an important step, said Delores Hogan Johnson, president of the St. Lucie Waterfront Council, a local group strongly opposed to industrial or cargo development at the port.

"It's sounding good and what we've been wanting for a long time," Johnson said of the revised port profile. "Anything that would be geared toward a port that would explain the beauty of the (Indian River) Lagoon is important." 

Johnson said the Waterfront Council remains committed to developing . a world-class research facility and eco-tourism facilities at the port. When that might come to fruition is difficult to tell, she said, but now that the city and county are officially eliminating cargo interest from state-wide profiles, the effort is going in the right direction. 

"The city's doing what it has a right to do," she said.