BOCA RATON, Fla. — Boca Raton city staff are proposing two options for a new police headquarters after voters rejected a $175 million bond proposal in March, and the city's new police chief says the project is one of his top priorities.
The first option would place a new headquarters on a 16-acre site at Spanish River Boulevard and Broken Sound Boulevard. The plan includes a hurricane-rated, two-story, 70,000-square-foot main building and a 9,000 square-foot downtown substation. The full campus would also include an evidence and storage building, a rolling asset building, a firing range, and a central energy plan — totaling approximately 100,000 square feet of public safety space.
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The second option would keep the headquarters downtown, building a six-story, hurricane-rated facility on a smaller, 1.94-acre site. That plan includes a 45,000-square-foot evidence and storage building, an 18,000-square-foot rolling asset building, a 12,000-square-foot firing range, and a 1,500-square-foot central energy plan, totaling approximately 90,000 square feet of public space.
Costs have not been finalized, but city staff say the downtown option could run 10 to 12% higher due to vertical construction.
Resident Martha Parker welcomed the city's renewed effort but said some residents may feel the current proposals don't go far enough.
"I think a lot of people would've liked to see a third option. It's either very expensive or very sprawling in moving the location out west," Parker said.
Parker also expressed optimism about the process moving forward. "Excited to see how they take this opportunity to start over and come back to us and listen to us and take the feedback," Parker said. "I did like that both options did have a component, staying here in the downtown.”
Parker added that the revised proposals represent progress on cost.
"I'm really excited to see the city taking steps towards being more transparent," said Parker. ”They came back with two plans that are much lower in costs.”
Mayor Andy Thomson said the timing of new Police Chief Jarad Phelps' arrival is an asset to the process.
"He's coming in just the right time, because he is a gentleman who has worked on building new police headquarters in his prior stops — in North Carolina and Virginia,” Thomson said.
Phelps said the headquarters project is part of his early learning process in the role.
"That's part of that learning process, where the development, where the future development is going to be. The police department is a big topic right now. Learning more about that," Phelps said.
Not everyone is on board with the proposals as presented. City Council Member Jon Pearlman raised concerns about moving operations away from the city center.
"I don't understand what the end game is by moving this all out to these different locations away from the downtown," Pearlman said.
The city plans to poll residents and host community conversations. The first session is Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Spanish River Library and the second will be held September 2nd.
