The months-long debate over Boca Raton ’s redevelopment plan isn’t slowing down. About a month after scaling back their proposal, developers came back with an even smaller version.
But city leaders and residents remain divided on redeveloping the city’s government center, and now two elections next year could decide whether the project moves forward.
Located on NW 2nd Avenue, about a 10-minute walk east of the Boca Raton Brightline station, the proposed mixed-use government campus redevelopment project would cover about eight acres of city-owned property.
That’s a far cry from the originally proposed 31-acre development.
Developers Terra and Frisbie initially pitched a modern-style project that includes a mixed-use civic center around the City Hall campus, a pedestrian promenade to promote walkability, all in close proximity to roughly 955 residential units — 769 rental apartments, 186 independently-owned condos, a 150,000-square-foot office building and a hotel.
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The Save Boca grassroots advocacy group has been among the project's loudest critics, arguing that residents and other stakeholders — not city officials and developers — should decide whether public land is privatized.
They also point out the site currently houses open green space, historic parkland like Memorial Park, tennis courts and playgrounds — and worry many of those community spaces could be lost if the project moves forward.
But Boca Mayor Scott Singer has consistently called it a long-term economic win, as he courts prospective residents from out-of-state.
Referendums in two upcoming elections on Jan. 13 and March 10 will determine the project’s fate.
The first ballot features two Save Boca-backed referendum questions that would require voter approval before selling or leasing more than half an acre of city-owned land.
And the March ballot will include two more referendums. One asks if the city should move forward with the redevelopment project itself, along with an unrelated proposal to spend $175 million dollars in bond funds for a new police station.
Voters will also choose a new mayor and city council members that day, as Mayor Scott Singer is term-limited.
