Boca Raton officials have approved ballot language for a contentious redevelopment project, the fate of which will be determined at the city’s next election.
After a lengthy back and forth among the City Council during a meeting last week, council members voted 4-1 to approve the question that will appear on the March 10 election.
The question will ask residents to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the following question:
“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 public recreational and green spaces,
— New community center, City Hall and police substation?”
State law limits ballot summaries to 75 words, “so they are not intended to include every project detail,” the city wrote in a recent newsletter.
“Comprehensive information about the proposed redevelopment — including financial considerations, development characteristics, implementation steps and other details and materials — is and will continue to be publicly available, ensuring that residents have access to the full picture as they consider the proposal,” the city wrote.
During the Dec. 2 meeting, council members toyed with different versions of the language, removing and adding words, and disagreeing at times about whether the language was impartial.
“We cannot be in the business of trying to persuade in the ballot language itself,” Council member Andy Thomson said. “We will have campaigns to handle that.”
Thomson, who is running for mayor, was the sole vote against approving the ballot language, pitching his own version of the question that he felt was more neutral.
Thomson’s proposed question would have asked residents to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether the city should “redevelop its government campus — 31 acres of downtown city-owned land — by partnering with developer Boca Raton City Center, LLC to rebuild city city facilities (city hall, community center, police substation, Memorial Park) and leasing to the developer for 99 years 7.8 acres of city-owned land to build private mixed-use development (residential, hotel, office, retail) with associated project costs and projected revenues as outlined in the agreements?”
In response to Thomson’s suggestion, Council member Yvette Drucker said she hoped his proposed question at the Dec. 2 meeting was “not a political move.”
“I really, really hope that this is not how we’re going to conduct ourselves as we move through the next really, really critical weeks,” Drucker said at the meeting.
Council member Marc Wigder, who originally supported Thomson’s ballot language proposal, said he believed the language the council eventually settled on is more impartial than other versions.
“I think the language is neutral to the point that it reflects exactly what we’re intending to do,” he said during the meeting.
The Save Boca movement, which is against the government campus project, created a statement in response to the approved ballot language, calling it “not balanced” and that it “read like a sales-pitch for the developer.”
For the March 10 election, residents also will cast votes for a new mayor, council member seats A, B and D, and another question about whether the city should spend $175 million in bond funds on a new police station.
The March election will be Boca Raton’s only upcoming election because the formerly scheduled Jan. 13 special election was canceled after a judge found the ballot questions unconstitutional.
