MARTIN COUNTY — Nancy McComb stands to lose her home.
The 71-year-old was using a walker and was represented by an attorney April 23 when the Florida Department of Transportation heard comments from the public on a $91 million expansion of Cove Road that would involve taking her home by eminent domain.
McComb lives at Southwest Gaines Avenue and Southeast Paulson Avenue, where FDOT wants to build a pond to collect and filter water before it’s discharged. The state is taking about 18 acres for ponds.
“She is in a unique situation,” her attorney Christopher DeSantis said following the meeting.
She may not be able to find comparable land and a home if the state takes her property, he said.
Public land is across the street, DeSantis said. He wants to know if the Department of Transportation has even tried to see if it can use that land for the pond.
More than 100 people attended the meeting at Indian River State College Chastain Campus.
More than 100 people came to hear the public comment about the planned expansion of Cove Road in unincorporated Martin County, Florida. The meeting was April 23, 2025, at Indian River State College, 2400 Southeast Salerno Road, Stuart, Florida.
Cove Road expansion details
The state wants to widen 3.2 miles of Cove Road to four lanes between Kanner Highway and U.S. 1. A median would separate each pair of lanes, according to drawings.
The purpose of the expansion is to ease congestion and improve the transportation network overall, according to FDOT. The state is expecting to pay for the expansion and may seek federal money as well, but there’s no money yet allocated for the work, said Project Manager Vanita Saini.
“We anticipate it (the project) will get funding in the coming years,” Saini said.
Design is expected to start later this year, she said, and FDOT is hoping to start construction in 2031 and complete it in about two years.
Once it’s complete, the entire project area would receive new landscaping, she said. The state would pay for the landscaping and Martin County would maintain it, Saini said.
People viewed drawings and other visual representations of the planned expansion of Cove Road in unincorporated Martin County, Florida, at an open house April 23, 2025, at Indian River State College, 2400 Southeast Salerno Road, Stuart, Florida.
Residents’ reaction
“I think it’s great because I think the volume demonstrates a need,” said Richard Kosenski, who lives in the Tres Belle subdivision on Cove Road.
The roundabouts planned for the project, Kosenski thinks, “are an excellent solution” because drivers only need to look left and enter the circle. The roundabouts also will slow traffic down, he said.
Others, however, were less pleased with what they saw in FDOT’s presentation.
“My main concern is they’re going to flood our properties,” said Angie Leggio, who lives on Cove Road.
She already has standing water on her property when there is a big storm and they’re going to take away the opportunity for water to drain, she said.
“It’s going to flood my property even more,” she said, and lower her property value.
Others’ reaction
Two schools are along Cove Road, prompting T. Mark Greene to ask officials to designate the entire stretch a school zone.
Greene is the operations administrator for Treasure Coast Classical Academy, one of the schools. Anderson Middle School is the other school. Combined, they serve about 2,000 students, Greene said.
“We have hundreds of children a day … that cross Cove Road,” he said.
Still others, like Warren Newell, who lives in one of the first ever houses built on Cove Road, in 1971, said flooding is also a concern for him.
FDOT needs to consider the drainage in a wider area than just along the project area, he said. Development in the area has reduced the land available for storing water, and that could mean increased flooding.
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Water came close to his home in a couple of storms last year.
“The flooding’s gotten worse and worse,” he said.
Keith Burbank is TCPalm’s watchdog reporter covering Martin County. He can be reached at [email protected] and at 720-288-6882.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Interest high over $91 million expansion of Martin County’s Cove Road
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