The city says the Boca Raton police headquarters has outlived its useful life. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Project offers revisions after voters rejected previous plan
Related story: New chief settling in, promises no ‘sweeping changes right off the bat’
Note: The Community Advisory Panel is holding another community session on the Boca Raton Police Services Complex from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 2 at the Downtown Library, 400 NW Second Ave., Boca Raton
By Mary Hladky
Since nearly 55% of Boca Raton voters in the March 10 election rejected financing the construction of a new police campus, city officials have regrouped, reconsidered and recalculated.
Yet the final analysis is largely the same as before: The city badly needs to replace its 40-year-old, 35,000-square-foot police station that housed 145 police personnel in 1986 and houses 331 today. With so little space, police operations are now spread out over five buildings.
One difference this time around is that city officials have mounted a stronger public outreach campaign to explain to residents why the facility is needed, let them ask questions and provide feedback. The city’s Community Advisory Panel is assisting in getting input.
But officials have acknowledged that many residents saw the last project iteration as a boondoggle, with a main building that Save Boca branded as a Taj Mahal.
So they have slashed the size of the project from 165,000 square feet to about 90,000 square feet and the cost from $190 million to about $125 million.
The cost number isn’t final since matters such as design are not finalized. But City Manager Mark Sohaney said the cost to taxpayers will not exceed $125 million.
The price tag was cut by reducing building size. The larger building proposed before the March 10 election was based on the size Boca Raton would need in 2046.
The 90,000 square feet is what the city needs today. That would be increased later on as needed, Sohaney said.
With the station financed through a 30-year general obligation bond issue, homeowners still would bear most of the cost. But instead of the station’s costing them $123.74 a year on a property with a taxable value of $475,000, it now would be about $93.
City voters will have the final say on whether the project goes forward during the March 9, 2027, municipal election.
The two locations under consideration are 16.4 acres of city-owned land immediately east of the Spanish River Library and 1.9 acres on the downtown campus where the Building Administration and Code Enforcement (BACE) building now sits immediately north of the current police headquarters.
A survey of residents conducted the first week in August by California-based FM3 Research showed that 56% strongly or somewhat favored building a new police complex, while 34% were somewhat or strongly opposed, with 10% saying they didn’t know.
After residents received more information about the project, the total favorable number jumped to 77%, while total opposition dropped to 21%.
The location of the complex proved more divisive: 64% strongly or somewhat favored the Spanish River location, while 59% strongly or somewhat wanted it to be downtown.
Asked to make a choice, 54% wanted the complex built at Spanish River, 24% wanted it downtown, and 18% opposed a new complex. Five percent didn’t know.
Across all location questions, 49% consistently favored Spanish River, while 36% wanted the downtown location.
City Council members are scheduled to decide the location and scope of the project at their Sept. 22 meeting. If the project gets their blessing, an architect will be selected.
No council members have indicated that they oppose the project. But when it was discussed at a July 27 meeting, Deputy Mayor Michelle Grau and Council member Stacy Sipple, both of whom were backed by Save Boca in last March’s election, said they wanted to know more about what residents would like to see.
Two people who spoke at the meeting also said they wanted to hear more from other residents.
Council member Jon Pearlman, the Save Boca leader also elected to the council in March, advocated for keeping the police headquarters at its present location on the downtown campus.
At a community outreach session on Aug. 5, the general consensus of about 75 people in attendance was that the Spanish River location was acceptable.
However, they also wanted a substation in the downtown. City staff has accepted that and proposed a one-story, 9,000-square-foot building there.
The Spanish River site is appealing to city officials because the city already owns the property and can avoid the cost of buying land. Its size leaves room for expansion.
It’s also located in what city officials now consider to be the central part of the city with good access to major roads such as Interstate 95.
City officials have tried to dispel concern among some residents that the Spanish River location will cause slower response times to emergency calls.
Police officers, they say, operate out of zones and remain there during their shifts. The headquarters location will have no impact on response times, which for emergency calls are four minutes or less, they said.
Preliminary conceptual plans presented in July for the Spanish River site show a two-story main building, two additional buildings for evidence and storage and rolling assets, a firing range and a central energy plant that will provide power in the event of outages.
If the downtown site is selected, the main building would be six stories, including a four-story garage. Space for evidence and storage, rolling assets, firing range and energy plant would be incorporated into that building.
One negative of a six-story building is that it would be 10%-12% more expensive to build, officials said.
The city wants to be able to move ahead quickly with this project because construction costs continue to rise. Officials expect they can build far more now with the money they are allocating than they will be able to even a few years from now.
Note: The Community Advisory Panel is holding another community session on the Boca Raton Police Services Complex from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 2 at the Downtown Library, 400 NW Second Ave., Boca Raton
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