STUART, Fla. — Today, the City of Stuart met with downtown businesses about a multimillion-dollar project to move power lines underground to make the power grid more resilient to severe storms .

Currently, downtown Stuart’s sidewalks are filled with utility poles, so area business owners are happy with the transformation.

“One of the big things we’re excited about is burying the utility lines here,” said Bill Moore, owner of Kilwins in downtown Stuart.

Moore says he spent years asking the city to run electricity underground.

“We’re excited to see this cleaned up and this street become more functional and walkable,” Moore said.

The city told WPTV reporter Cassandra Garcia that the project wouldn’t just impact appearance.

“We are going to increase our reliability and reduce power outages downtown,” said Pinal Gandhi-Savdas, director of the Stuart Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).

Business owners recalled the impacts of Hurricane Milton last month.

“I think in the last hurricane we were closed for three days, I think, so that’s three zeros, so it’s no fun at all,” said Ron Hart, owner of The Dirty Hippie in downtown town of Stuart.

Part of the project will also include the development of Seminole Street.

The project will cost $9.7 million, funded from grants and the ARC budget.

Work will begin in March and continue until November 2027.

The City says that the most complex work will be carried out out of season.

“Along Osceola Street, we’re going to work in quadrants in sections,” Gandhi-Savdas said. “We will only close certain sidewalks and a certain number of on-street parking spaces.”

Businesses hope this will have minimal impact on foot traffic.

“All the merchants are concerned that the street is under construction and parking spaces are being taken away,” Moore said. “But I think it should have been done a long time ago.”

Most downtown businesses believe this is what is best for downtown in the long term.

“Beautiful things attract beautiful people,” Hart said.