BOCA RATON, FL — City staff will ask the Boca Raton City Council on Monday to back a two-site police services complex, pairing a 16.4-acre central campus near Spanish River Boulevard with a smaller downtown station, four months after voters rejected a $175 million public safety bond.
The 1:30 p.m. workshop is not a decision point. According to the staff presentation, council members are being asked for feedback on the recommendation and for direction to move into a community outreach and polling phase. The location and scope decision is scheduled for Sept. 22, paired with the city's final budget hearing.
Staff framed the project around three problems in the presentation: facilities built decades ago that no longer meet modern public safety or hurricane resiliency standards, space sized for a department far smaller than current staffing and call volume, and patrol, evidence, training and command functions split across separate buildings. When those functions are spread out, the presentation said, coordination slows down "when speed matters most."
The recommended option is labeled Central Complex plus Downtown Station. The central site graphics in the presentation show a parcel bounded by Spanish River Boulevard and Broken Sound Boulevard. The downtown component is shown near Northwest Second Avenue and Northwest Second Street, next to about 30,000 square feet of green space.
According to the presentation, the recommended package includes:
- Central main building, two stories, 70,000 square feet, described as top hurricane rated
- Downtown main building, one story, 9,000 square feet
- Evidence and storage building, reduced to 20,000 square feet
- Rolling asset building, one story, 18,000 square feet
- Firing range, 50 yards, one story, 12,000 square feet
- Central energy plant, one story, 1,500 square feet
Staff put total public safety space in that option at roughly 100,000 square feet.
The alternative presented is a single downtown complex on 1.94 acres. That version stacks everything into a six-story building, with four levels of parking garage over two levels of operations, and places a 45,000-square-foot evidence and storage area, an 18,000-square-foot rolling asset area, a 50-yard firing range and a central energy plant inside the vertical structure. Staff listed total public safety space there at roughly 90,000 square feet.
Six other locations were evaluated and set aside, according to a due diligence slide:
- 6500 Congress Avenue
- 6651 Park of Commerce Blvd.
- Banyan Training Facility
- Eight acres east of Second Avenue
- Glades south of Florida Atlantic University
- Palmetto south of Paradise Palms
Each was measured against cost, feasibility, site constraints and future growth, the presentation said, and each presented similar limitations.
The money question drives the schedule. A $175 million bond referendum failed at the March 2026 municipal election, as Boca Post reported. Council members reached consensus on a $125 million figure at a June meeting, and that number is now one of three guiding criteria staff used to test every option, alongside department operational needs and community input.
Before any of that reaches voters, the city has an outreach schedule. Community polling is set for Aug. 3 through Aug. 17. Community conversations are scheduled for Aug. 5 and Sept. 2. A Let's Talk Boca event focused on public safety is set for Aug. 19, and staff are also scheduled to present to the Financial Advisory Board in August.
What happens next
Council workshops continue through the summer and culminate Sept. 22, when the council is scheduled to decide location and scope and review ballot language. A resolution on ballot language would be considered in October, with final language due to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections by Nov. 10. The referendum would go before voters at the March 9, 2027, municipal election. A design firm would be selected in February 2027.
The police complex is one of four presentations on Monday's workshop agenda. The council is also scheduled to hear a homelessness response update from city staff, a presentation from Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District Executive Director Briann Harms, and a discussion on the Historic Preservation Board. The meeting opens with interviews for eight city boards, including the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, the Financial Advisory Board, the Library Board, the Parks and Recreation Board and the Sustainability Advisory Board.
Workshop agendas in Boca Raton do not carry quasi-judicial hearings or ordinance readings, and the police complex item is listed for presentation and council direction rather than a vote.
Police and fire rescue budgets, facility plans, and service levels come before the City Council regularly, including the ongoing police complex debate. Boca Post covers those decisions in our Boca Raton Government and Development section.
