ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The county wants to legitimize its worst kept secret.

County officials Tuesday unveiled plans to officially recognize Blind Creek Beach as a clothing-optional beach, which opens the door for the popular beach, on State Road A1A between Frederick Douglass Beach park and the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant, to get restrooms, a paved parking lot and a lifeguard.

Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism arm, mentions and promotes the beach as clothing optional at its visitor center, so does TripAdvisor and Yelp and a French publication Le Courrier.

“If anybody thinks that it is a little dark secret, it’s not,” Deputy County Administrator Jeff Bremer said.

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Naturists have been using the beach as a clothing-optional venue for more than 20 years, and since 2014, the Treasure Coast Naturist has been asking the county to recognize a section of the beach as clothing optional. The group has been placing signs alerting the public they are moving into clothing optional section.

“I think it is great what the county is doing,” said Nelson Jones, 59, president of the group. “It’s about freedom from the binding of clothes. You can feel the breeze and feel the sun. You can commune with nature.”

St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office has routinely stated that it is legal to be naked at the beach and it only becomes a problem if someone commits a lewd act.

“They do a good job of policing themselves,” Bremer said. “They don’t want any lewd and lascivious activity happening at that location.”

Most of the beach area is owned by the state and the South Florida Water Management District and leased to the county’s Mosquito Control District.

The County Commission must pass a resolution recognizing the beach as clothing optional and outlining its boundaries. Staff will work with Treasure Coast Naturists to create the boundaries and a list of improvements needed at the beach, county spokesman Erick Gill said.

The group for the last three years has been paying a company up to $600 a month to place portable toilets at the beach for public use, Jones said.

It would cost about $350,000 to build restrooms at the beach, Bremmer told the commission.

A county provided tally of beachgoers from August 2018, the most recent figures available, showed Blind Creek was the most popular of the county showed 3,621 vehicles in the parking lot compared to 1,458 vehicles at Waveland Beach and 935 vehicles at Dollman Beach, 584 vehicles at Frederick Douglass Beach and 521 vehicles at John Brooks Beach.

“This clearly a niche market for us,” Bremer said.