Voters in Boca Raton rejected the proposed One Boca redevelopment project by Terra and Frisbie Group on March 11, with 74.5 percent of the 18,931 votes cast against the plan. The decision followed a period of strong opposition led by Jon Pearlman’s Save Boca organization, which pushed for the issue to be decided by referendum after the city initially awarded the developers the bid last February.
The outcome marks a significant shift in local politics, as Save Boca-backed candidates Stacy Sipple and Michelle Grau won seats A and D on the city council with 66.6 percent and 55.8 percent of the vote, respectively. Pearlman himself secured seat B with 52.9 percent of votes, giving an anti-development majority control over the council.
The One Boca proposal included a 99-year lease for 7.8 acres of city-owned land and plans to redevelop Memorial Park with new civic facilities such as a city hall, community center, police substation, playgrounds, tennis courts, office space, apartments, a hotel, grocery store, and parking spaces. An adjacent site was also slated for condominium development. The architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox was selected to design the project.
Terra CEO David Martin and Frisbie leaders Rob Frisbie Jr. and Cody Crowell responded to the result: “While this was not the outcome we had hoped for, we appreciate the community’s thoughtful participation and dialogue throughout this process.”
Opponents raised concerns about leasing public land to private developers for nearly a century without sufficient early public input or clarity on environmental impacts such as Memorial Park’s banyan trees. Pearlman compared it to “bulldozing Central Park.”
With Save Boca’s candidates now holding council seats and Terra and Frisbie’s proposal rejected, questions remain about how needed upgrades to city facilities will proceed. Incumbent Marc Widger said earlier this month: “The community center needs to be replaced no matter what, the city hall needs to be replaced no matter what… The city in theory could do it on its own, but that would be a burden to the tax payers.”
