Disneyland for drivers: Plans for a country club for auto enthusiasts in western St. Lucie

Florida is chock full of country clubs and golf course communities.

But, as Ari Straus points out, while not everybody plays golf, almost everybody of legal age drives a car.

His solution? A country club for car enthusiasts, which he hopes to build on 629 acres of citrus groves in western St. Lucie County, about halfway between Fort Pierce and Okeechobee. As his wife and business partner Molly McCoy Straus quipped, the P1 Motor Club would be "a different kind of driving range."

How different? Instead of golf courses, the club would feature two road courses, one 2.7 miles and the other 4 miles. There also would be an off-road course and a go-kart track. A skid pad for testing vehicle handling under extreme conditions. A 4,600-foot runway that could be used both for testing vehicle acceleration and accommodating the occasional arrival of private aircraft. A research and development center for testing automotive products.

At full build-out, the project could accommodate up to 125 high-end residences, a combination of traditional single-family homes and "autominiums," which would be like townhouses with oversized first-floor garages.

And let's not forget the "GarageMahals," which would be massive garages equipped with lounge areas where members and their guests could relax and possibly even sleep over a night or two. (The Strauses prefer not to call them "crash pads," for obvious reasons.)

In addition to all this, there would be space set aside for P1's offices, an event center, a clubhouse, a restaurant and convenience store for use by members and guests.

This wouldn't be a facility for the wannabe racers who run up and down U.S. 1 on Friday and Saturday nights in their barely muffled Dodge Chargers, though.

Except for a few special events each year, the facilities wouldn't be open to the public. Ari Straus said the "initiation fee" to join P1 will be $150,000. The annual dues for each family member using a club license will be $12,000.

Rental fees for the GarageMahals will cost extra. Ari Straus said the "autominiums" and homes are expected to be priced from $750,000 to "$2 million-plus."

The Strauses, whose daughter Aurora is a professional racer, want to create an environment where people can drive high-performance cars in a safe environment, even offering driving instructions for novices.

And they say they won't tolerate misbehavior from club members that would reflect poorly on the club's image.

"We warn people: Speed on the way to the motor club and we won't let you in the gates," Ari Straus said. "We want to respect our neighbors."

It may sound like an exhaust pipe dream, but the Strauses aren't working strictly from imagination. They've both been involved in management of the Monticello Motor Club, a similar facility that has operated successfully in upstate New York since 2008.

While these types of private car clubs aren't common, there are a few others around, including in other parts of Florida. There's the Concours Club in Miami, the Motor Enclave in Tampa and Circuit Florida, which is scheduled to open later this year in Auburndale, a community between Tampa and Orlando.

The Strauses wanted to build a motor club in Florida somewhat close to Molly's hometown of Land O'Lakes. They scouted potential sites from Ocala to the southern tip of the peninsula, in search of a location with at least 400 acres in a remote location, but still reasonably close interstate access.

The site they picked, southwest of where Highway 70 and Summerlin Road intersect, is in a rural area surrounded by land owned by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and a smattering of private farms.

Ari Straus acknowledges there would be noise neighbors could hear during the tracks' operating hours, which will generally run from 8 a.m. until two hours after sunset, four days a week. However, by using berms and using a north-south configuration for the tracks, he's hoping to reduce the impact as much as possible for the farms along Summerlin Road to the east.

He also acknowledges his motor club would be a fossil fuel-burning enterprise, at least until electric cars replace their gas-powered predecessors. To mitigate the project's environmental impact, he plans to use solar power, reclaimed water for irrigation and have on-site water and sewer treatment plants to avoid creating "urban sprawl" by extending county services.

P1 also would provide emergency services personnel and round-the-clock security, Ari Straus said.

The St. Lucie Planning and Zoning Commission got its first look at the project during a lengthy public hearing last week. While commissioners raised many questions, the impressions they expressed were very generally favorable.

If anything, they seemed to think the terms of the proposed comprehensive plan amendment needed for the project to move forward might be too strict.

For example, Edward Lounds, the commission's vice chair, questioned whether it might make more sense for the county to extend water and sewer services, rather than requiring P1 to provide them, in light of expected development in the western part of the county.

"I don't want us to miss an opportunity and look back in six or seven years and say: 'Gosh, I wish we'd done that,'" Lounds said.

Lounds also expressed hope the project could move forward on a faster timetable than the Strauses were suggesting.

"You're talking about a 21-year buildout," he said. "For the county's sake, we hope it doesn't take that long."

While the plans call for a maximum of 1,200 members, Commissioner James Taylor questioned whether it was wise to include a cap that limits total membership in the comp plan amendment.

Four residents spoke during the commission's public hearing, including Rick Modine, a Summerlin Road rancher, who lamented the county's westward expansion and the eventual loss of even more farmland. Modine said the sounds of nature would be drowned out by "private-paying thrill junkies" at the motor club.

Like the other citizens who spoke, Sneed Road resident Cody Holcomb echoed Modine's concerns about the loss of rural land. However, given the current growth trends, Holcomb said, the motor club could be better than the alternative.

"What behooves us as a county is to choose smart development options," Holcomb said. "With citrus gone, what do we do with all this acreage west of town? I would be on the side of this over a 10,000-unit (subdivision) going in there."

After three-plus hours of presentations and testimony, the commission endorsed the land-use change needed to get the project rolling. The next stop is a public hearing before the St. Lucie County Commission, scheduled for Aug. 1.

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at bfontenay@gannett.com or at 772-232-5424.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: P1 Motor Club would be playground for high-performance drivers in SLC