(This story was updated to add new information.)
MARTIN COUNTY — A $45 million deal was struck for a Brightline train station in downtown Stuart, just months after city commissioners there rescinded a similar deal.
The new station will be the closest station north of Brightline’s West Palm Beach station. Other stations are in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura, Miami and Orlando. A station also is planned for Cocoa.
Martin County commissioners approved the station unanimously at a packed County Commission meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12, with about an equal number of supporters and detractors in the audience.
“We should be looking decades into the future,” when dealing with transportation and perhaps other issues facing the county, said Commissioner Ed Ciampi.
The Martin Metropolitan Planning Organization, which coordinates transportation improvements in the county, is looking 26 years into the future at the need for roads, Ciampi added.