Audra Creech is an associate in Gunster’s Real Estate Law and Environmental and Land Use Law practices.

A Seventh Generation Floridian and Martin County native, many of Audra’s ancestors were the surveyors, mappers, engineers, traders, farmers and cattlemen that cut modern day Florida from the wilds of “Mosquito County” (aka everything south of Tallahassee circa 1803). Because of Audra’s connection and long-standing appreciation for the lands and waters of Florida, and its history, Audra firmly espouses that if a community is not growing, its dying.

Getting responsible development through the permitting process, the quasi-judicial local government process, entitlements process, and finally, through the construction process, requires ingenuity, creativity, and foremost, true grit, in counties and municipalities that see all development as an anathema. These are the inhospitable environments Audra calls home.

Audra has spent her entire life seeing and understanding the interplay of relationships, financial requirements, permitting, planning, and zoning codes and boards, and environmental priorities that make getting even responsible development approved and constructed. This understanding first stemmed from working as a part of Creech Engineers, Inc., her family’s Civil Engineering and Surveying Firm in Martin County. Then Audra’s understanding was expanded as counsel for associations in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River Counties. Finally, Audra earned her stripes in the trenches of multi-party complex construction defect cases, providing professional liability defense of engineers, architects and surveyors on significant projects throughout South Florida.

Because of Audra’s long-standing connections with the communities of Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Palm Beach Counties, many stemming from childhood, Audra is specifically well positioned to get projects approved in counties up and down the Treasure Coast. Finally, because Audra has seen that local governments are not the only obstacles to responsible development, Audra is effective in navigating agencies such as South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), St. John’s Water Management District, special drainage districts, the Army Corp of Engineers, Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, among others.

• Aided in settling a dispute involving impact fees in relation to the project at Lowes at St. Lucie West.
• Prepared conceptual site plans for mixed-use commercial shopping centers to allow lucrative outparcels for client.
• Aided Martin County in requiring necessary safety measures from All-Aboard Florida.
• Prevented the breach of a 99-year lease, protecting the Freedom Park Conservancy in Atlanta, GA through creation and adoption of an ordinance in Fulton and Dekalb counties.

• Pathfinder Award, 2008
• All American Athlete – Collegiate Wrestling, 2009-10

• Florida Bar
  • Real Property Probate Law Section
  • Environmental and Land Use Law Section
  • Trial Lawyers Section
  • City County & Local Government Section
  • Animal Law Section

• American German Club, Volunteer, 2022
• Palm Beach Sword School, Highland Bag Pipe Student Group, Scholarship Donor, 2022
• Big Dog Ranch Rescue, Monthly Donor, 2020-22