Hutchinson Island, Florida: St. Lucie County Guide

Hutchinson Island is the barrier island on St. Lucie County's Atlantic shore, with ocean beaches on one side and the Indian River Lagoon on the other, and this guide covers only its St. Lucie County part.

St. Lucie County Environmental Resources groups its island preserves under the heading Along the Coast and the Lagoon, which it describes as barrier island beach, mangrove impoundments and the scrub ridge north of Fort Pierce (St. Lucie County preserves index). The county counts 28 preserves and more than 11,000 protected acres countywide, bought starting with a $20 million bond that voters approved in 1994.

Three kinds of ground share the St. Lucie County stretch. The City of Fort Pierce lists South Hutchinson Island beside its historic downtown and the Avenue D corridor among the areas it has redeveloped since its 1901 incorporation (City of Fort Pierce About page). The Census Bureau tabulates Hutchinson Island South as a census designated place (ACS DP05 for Hutchinson Island South CDP). County preserves and mosquito impoundments line A1A, which county preserve pages also call South Ocean Drive.

Mailing towns on the island do not follow a single name. The county lists Vitolo Family Preserve at 3701 S Ocean Drive with a Fort Pierce, FL 34949 address (Vitolo Family Preserve page), while Ocean Bay Preserve, farther south at 6851 South Ocean Drive, carries a Jensen Beach, FL 34957 address on the same county site (Ocean Bay Preserve page). Both are listed as St. Lucie County preserves.

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 2020-2024 5-year estimates count 4,175 residents in Hutchinson Island South CDP, with a median age of 71.4 years (ACS 2020-2024 DP05, Hutchinson Island South CDP).

Older residents make up most of the population. In the same table, 66.7 percent of Hutchinson Island South residents were 65 or older and 3.1 percent were under 18. The ACS economic profile counts 30.6 percent of residents 16 and over in the labor force, 58.4 percent of households with retirement income and 76.5 percent with Social Security income (ACS 2020-2024 DP03, Hutchinson Island South CDP).

Hutchinson Island South median household income was $65,871, while mean household income was $96,511 and median family income was $106,607 (ACS DP03 income rows). The survey puts 7.0 percent of all people below the poverty level. These figures describe the census designated place only, not the Fort Pierce city portion of the island.

Hutchinson Island South housing is mostly in buildings of 20 or more units and mobile homes, much of it built in the 1980s, and most of its 6,522 housing units were vacant at the time of the survey (ACS 2020-2024 DP04, Hutchinson Island South CDP).

The ACS 2020-2024 housing table lists 53.4 percent of Hutchinson Island South units in buildings with 20 or more units, 23.3 percent as mobile homes and 16.4 percent as detached single family houses. By age, 47.7 percent were built from 1980 to 1989 and 16.6 percent from 1970 to 1979, while 0.5 percent were built in 2020 or later (ACS DP04 units in structure and year built).

Of the 6,522 Hutchinson Island South units, the table counts 2,576 occupied and 3,946 vacant, or 60.5 percent vacant as the table prints it. Among occupied homes, 90.2 percent were owner occupied; the median value of owner occupied homes was $406,800, and the median gross rent was $1,408 a month, with a rental vacancy rate of 32.8 percent (ACS DP04 tenure, value and rent).

St. Lucie County preserves on its part of the island include Kings Island, Bear Point, Wildcat Cove, Vitolo and Ocean Bay, open dawn to dusk every day at no charge (St. Lucie County preserves index).

Most of these preserves are working mosquito impoundments. The St. Lucie County Mosquito Control District runs 4,000 acres of coastal mangrove swamp and salt marsh this way: impoundments stay open to natural tides most of the year and are kept flooded during the summer breeding season, a procedure it calls rotational impoundment management and describes as insect control that does not require pesticides (Mosquito Control Impoundment Division page). The district names Bear Point Sanctuary, Vitolo Family Park, Blind Creek Park, Ocean Bay, Kings Island and Wildcat Cove among the lands its acquisition program helped buy.

The same district runs the Bear Point Mitigation Bank, a 317-acre bank on county wetlands about 1.3 miles south of Ft. Pierce Inlet, permitted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Impoundment Division, mitigation bank). Bear Point carries history too: the county says it is known as the location of the last recorded black bear hunt by local Native Americans on Hutchinson Island (Bear Point Sanctuary page). At Ocean Bay, the county places the riverside area 2 miles north of the oceanside lot, on the west side of A1A.

The island holds the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority's Island Water Reclamation Facility, which FPUA is moving to the mainland, and the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant, whose Units 1 and 2 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission places on Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County (NRC NUREG-1779 page).

FPUA's 2024 financial report says its Island Water Reclamation Facility, located on Hutchinson Island, has a permitted capacity of 10 MGD for annual average daily flow and 11.5 MGD for the 3-month average, under a Florida Department of Environmental Protection operating permit adequate through December 10, 2027 (FPUA FY 2024 ACFR). The same report says ongoing construction primarily revolves around relocating the wastewater plant, rerouting the conveyance system from Hutchinson Island to the mainland, a North Fort Pierce natural gas expansion and the North Causeway Bridge Replacement.

State grant money is part of the relocation. FPUA reports an award of $28,061,358 from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Resilient Florida Program toward Phase 2 of its sewer treatment plant relocation project, and says the new facility will conserve two million gallons per day from Florida's aquifers by sending reuse water to the Florida Municipal Power Agency's Treasure Coast Energy Center (FPUA FY 2024 ACFR, highlights). FPUA's FY 2026 budget adds fiber: its expansion plan includes construction to a portion of South Hutchinson Island (FPUA FY 2026 Annual Budget). The Fort Pierce Utilities Authority guide covers FPUA rates and how to start service.

Beaches, lifeguards, dog and horse rules on Hutchinson Island are in the Treasure Coast guides, while this page covers who lives on the island, its preserves and its public plants.

County preserve offices answer preserve questions at (772) 462-1692 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the number the county prints on each island preserve page (Kings Island Preserve page).

Last verified: October 22, 2026, for the St. Lucie County side of Hutchinson Island, by re-reading ACS 2020-2024 tables DP03, DP04 and DP05 for Hutchinson Island South CDP, five county preserve pages, the Mosquito Control impoundment page, the NRC renewal report and FPUA's 2024 ACFR and 2026 budget.