It’s not an election year, but in parts of Boca Raton, it sure looks like it.
From Palm Beach Farms to downtown, scores of green yard signs read “Save Boca.”
The signs represent widespread opposition to a plan to redevelop Boca Raton’s government campus, a 30-acre area that includes City Hall, police headquarters, a community center, the main library, recreational facilities and some commercial properties.
A plan approved by the city from among several proposals by private builders includes a larger city hall, community center, plazas and parks with bigger and better police and recreational facilities moved to new areas.
It sounded good — but it also included a 150-room hotel and almost 1,000 apartments in a crowded downtown where residents have had enough development.
Late Monday, the project developers, Miami’s Terra Development and Palm Beach’s Frisbie Group, did the right thing and announced plans to remove the hotel, reduce the apartment units from 912 to 704, keep the giant banyan trees on site, and work with veterans to provide a memorial at Memorial Park, which is dedicated to World War II vets.
Those are major concessions to the Save Boca movement — a recognition of the power of grassroots activism.
“We’re inspired and excited to continue to refine our proposal with the community,” Terra CEO David Martin said in a Monday meeting with the Boca Raton City Council as the changes were unveiled.
Save Boca’s turn
Faced with a development larger than Mizner Park and featuring major residential and commercial expansions, the grassroots group Save Boca launched petition drives to put an ordinance and a city charter amendment on the ballot to require voter approval for sale or lease of any parcel of public land larger than half an acre.
That’s an extreme response to development pressures. But Save Boca’s tireless founder, Jon Pearlman, clearly has faith in people. He believes, as he told the Sun Sentinel, that voters can be counted on to approve future land uses that are in the public interest.
But public land giveaways and a widespread NIMBY attitude have become so caustic that any future attempt by Boca Raton to lease even derelict public property might be defeated at the polls if Save Boca’s measures pass.
Save Boca says it has turned in enough signatures to get the ordinance on the ballot (subject to a city council vote). And it is quite close to the 6,112 signatures needed for the charter amendment, which, if passed, would put the half-acre language in the charter regardless of what the council thinks. A date for an election on these measures has not been set.
Given the handcuffs those measures would put on future city councils, we hope Save Boca has the sense to realize they’ve already won. Going through with the ordinance and charter amendment could do more harm than good.
Here we go again
Citizen revulsion over the private exploitation of public space has been growing.
On Hollywood beach, Fort Lauderdale and elsewhere, public-private partnerships leading to the lease of public land for private use have exploded in popularity, even as outraged residents watch the disappearance of green space.
This Editorial Board has warned against such partnerships before, most notably in Fort Lauderdale at Bahia Mar and One Stop Shop. Boca’s plan is different. The new campus would undeniably offer public benefits such as a new city hall and larger community center. But it includes for-profit private residential development on public land, and many people have lost patience with that.
At the same time, Save Boca offers a sledgehammer solution for a problem that needs a scalpel.
Rethink this plan again
On Monday, the people won, and so did representative democracy. More changes may be coming. In a weekend email to residents, Mayor Scott Singer assured the public that the current plans are not set in stone, that it’s OK if the process takes more time, and that a final plan will be “decided at the ballot.”
Those are welcome assurances. Had Terra-Frisbie moved forward with its initial plan for the government campus, it almost certainly would have resulted in passage of Save Boca’s restrictions, which will produce expensive lawsuits against the city and prevent future councils from acting nimbly.
There must be a better way, and it looks as though Boca Raton has found it.
The Boca Raton City Council will next discuss plans for the government campus and take public comment at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the city’s facilities building, 6500 Congress Avenue.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
