The revised plan for the downtown campus cuts commercial and residential square footage and keeps more recreation and green space. Memorial Park will get a new monument. Rendering by Terra and Frisbie Group
By Mary Hladky
As opposition to the city’s plans to redevelop its downtown campus has reached fever pitch, developers Terra and Frisbie Group have revamped their plans to reduce the project’s density and preserve more green and recreation space.
But residents aren’t mollified. Immediately after Terra/Frisbie officials outlined the substantial changes to the City Council on Sept. 8, members of the opposition group Save Boca denounced the new plan. More than 100 turned out for another council meeting the next night to drive home their message.
Save Boca organizer Jon Pearlman summed it up this way on Sept 8: “Get these people out of here,” he said of Terra/ Frisbie officials. “We don’t want to see them anymore.”
“The fundamental problem here is we don’t trust you,” resident Buffy Tucker told council members.
The message was the same on Sept. 9, tinged with anger and charges of betrayal.
“Three minutes is hardly enough to express my disgust,” said Richard Warren of the time allotted to speakers. “For you guys to be this tone-deaf, I don’t get it. Nobody wants this.”
Passions run strong even though Terra/Frisbie officials said they have listened to residents and revised the project in response to their objections.
Now eliminated from their plans are a hotel and one office and one residential building. Residential units have decreased from 912 to 740. The retail square footage has dropped from about 140,000 square feet to 80,000.
Eight clay tennis courts will remain on site and the number could increase to 10. Other recreation facilities have been added. All six banyan trees will remain where they are now. And the former Children’s Museum, housed in a historic building, will stay on site.
Memorial Park also will be retained, and will include a new monument to those who died in World War II that veterans groups will help design.
The changes will substantially decrease the amount of revenue the project will generate for the city — a drop from $3.1 billion to $2.1 billion, according to Terra/Frisbie calculations.
A majority of council members had wanted to fast-track the project and set an ambitious timetable. They scheduled Oct. 28 as the date to vote on a master agreement with Terra/Frisbie, but that has now been set aside with no new date set.
“I think it is clear we will not have an Oct. 28 vote on this matter,” Mayor Scott Singer said on Sept. 8.
The council also has acknowledged the obvious — that the fate of the project will be decided in an election, possibly the one already scheduled for March 10.
It is now apparent that Save Boca will have enough signatures on petitions to force the city to hold a vote on city ordinance and city charter changes that would not allow the council to lease or sell any city-owned land greater than one-half acre without allowing a vote. The city plans to lease the 30-acre downtown campus property for 99 years to Terra/Frisbie.
“We welcome that process,” said Frisbie Group principal Rob Frisbie. “We are not trying to force this on anyone. We are trying to collaboratively design something that is truly in the best interest of the community.”
Terra/Frisbie will hold two additional workshops on the project for residents.
They are Sept. 29 at the Downtown Library and Oct. 6 at the Spanish River Library, both from 4 to 7 p.m.
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