Related: Mayoral race takes nasty turn
By Mary Hladky
With so much crammed into Boca Raton’s March 10 election ballot, residents can be forgiven if they have lost sight of the fact they also will be voting on whether they are willing to finance the construction of a new police headquarters.
Even if they know that, the measure has created some confusion.
It is one of two referendum questions on the ballot, with the other one giving residents the final say on whether the city can redevelop a portion of the 31-acre downtown campus in partnership with developers Terra and Frisbie Group.
That has led some to conclude that the two matters are linked.
That perception has been fueled in part by Save Boca, which strongly opposes the proposed public-private partnership (P3) with Terra/Frisbie, now branded as One Boca.
Save Boca says, correctly, that if the P3 is approved, two new residential buildings will be built roughly on the site of the city’s current police headquarters located immediately east of City Hall.
But the group is also intimating that the city wants to move the police headquarters off site to free up land for downtown campus redevelopment.
City officials insist that is not so. They also are responding to residents’ complaints that the $190 million projected cost of a new headquarters is excessive.
To make their case, officials have been holding information sessions and meeting with any organization, homeowner association or civic group that wanted to be briefed. By election day, they will have held about 40 meetings.
A new headquarters is needed, officials say, because the existing one is far too small and in poor condition. As a result, various functions are now located in seven buildings, creating inefficiency and coordination problems.
Further, the department has space needs it would not have envisioned years ago, such as the addition of drone teams.
In response to suspicions the city is in league with One Boca, officials say they have known since 2001 that they needed a new building. Planning began in earnest even before they received proposals to redevelop the downtown campus.
They determined that the current site no longer meets the city’s needs. That’s because most of the city’s population growth has been west of the downtown, making the city’s geographical center generally in the area of the Boca Raton Innovation Campus.
Wanting to avoid the expense of buying land, they selected 17 city-owned acres adjacent to the Spanish River Library at the intersection of Spanish River and Broken Sound boulevards.
That site also provides good access to major roadways. Police Chief Michele Miuccio says the new location would not affect police response times for any part of the city.
Regarding the $190 million cost, Miuccio said what’s proposed is not one building but a police campus.
The campus would include an energy plant so police no longer will have to move out when a bad storm or hurricane approaches, as they do now.
There also will be a firing range and evidence storage building. A parking garage has been put on hold for now to shave $20-25 million off the project cost.
At a Feb. 17 community meeting on the project at the Downtown Library, Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer Jim Zervis noted that, unlike the redevelopment plan with One Boca, the police project is not a P3.
Rather, the city will issue up to $175 million in tax-exempt general obligation bonds for a 30-year term. This, Zervis said, is the traditional way governments pay for such projects. The city will pay the remaining $15 million cost out of the general fund.
City property owners will pay for the $175 million through a property tax increase of 26 cents for every $1,000 of taxable value. That would come to $260 more a year on a property with a taxable value of $1,000,000.
The project will be competitively bid. So if the final tab is less than $190 million, the cost to property owners would be reduced.
If voters approve the bond issue on March 10, construction is expected to begin in early 2027 with completion two years later.
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