Vote ‘YES’ on Question 2

Question 2: Shall the city approve agreements with Boca Raton City Center, LLC leasing 7.8 acres of city property east of Northwest Second Avenue near Brightline Station, for 99 years, creating a walkable neighborhood with residential, retail, office, and hotel uses, generating rent and revenues to city for general uses and enhancements to city property, including: Preserving Memorial Park area, honoring veterans, expanding recreational and green spaces and building a new community center, City Hall and police substation?

First off, the residents of Boca Raton are to be congratulated for their involvement in whittling down the size of the One Boca project. We believe their efforts through the Save Boca movement led to a much more reasonably sized development of 7.8 acres near the Brightline station between Northwest Second Avenue, Palmetto Park Road and Northwest Fourth Street, a project that will add economic and social benefits to an expanded downtown.

The private portion of the complex will feature a boutique hotel, a grocery store and 947 new residences split between apartments and luxury condos. The developers will provide the city with a new City Hall, a police substation and a community center. The plan doubles the area’s usable public recreation space to 15.6 acres and includes a specific pledge to preserve six historic banyan trees and the sensitive lands of Memorial Park.

Leasing publicly owned land through a private-public partnership carries risks. However, we believe the agreement between the city and the developer, Terra/Frisbie, comes with enough safeguards to encourage an affirmative vote. If nothing else, the city council knows the will of its electorate and will do all it can to ensure that will is enforced.

Read the original piece here.