The Boca Raton Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) held its regular meeting on September 8, 2026, at 10:00 AM. The meeting focused on public comments regarding the proposed police headquarters location and the new skate park at North Park. No formal votes were taken, and the meeting was adjourned after commissioner reports.
All right, good morning, everybody. Let's call to order our meeting of the community redevelopment agency. The date is I suppose the date is September. Somebody remind me, sixth, seventh. September eighth. Well, we're kicking off the meeting anyway. Tuesday, September eighth. September eighth, very good. And the time is ten AM Eastern time, so everybody could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Chair Thompson. Present. You have a quorum there. Very good. Thank you, Miss Claire. Ms. Siddons. Mr. Manager, do we have any amendments to our agenda today? Thank you, Mr. Chair. No amendments to the agenda. Very good. Then I next thing we have is our minutes. We have the minutes of the regular meeting from August twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six. Does anyone have any revisions or corrections? Motion to approve. Yes, sir. We've received one coming card from Earl Starkoff. All right, Mr. Starkov, please step up, state your name and address, and you'll have three minutes. Good morning, Earl Starkoff, 3260 St. Charles Way. I attended last week's uh community conversation on the proposed police headquarters. Uh the city manager explained the alternatives had been narrowed to two sites. Uh the police chief explained something equally important. Wherever headquarters is located, officers will continue to be deployed throughout Boca Raton on where police services are needed. So the choice of headquarters does not determine the level of police presence downtown. Both locations give our police department something it needs today. Centralized command, control, and communications, but there are important differences. The downtown site requires a multi-story building, has no room for future expansion, and is within a hurricane evacuation zone. The Spanish River site provides the centralized headquarters we need today, outside the evacuation zone with room to accommodate whatever the future may bring. At our discussion table, four residents from different parts of Boca with different backgrounds, reached a unanimous decision. We preferred the Spanish River location. But I thought there was another question the public needed answered. During QA, I asked the finance director. If the voters approve a hundred and twenty-five million dollar bond issue in March, what's that going to look like come this time next year on the taxpayers budget? His direct answer was an estimated $93 per year. That's less than $8 a month. And I think that number matters to 100,000 men, women, and children that are the residents of Boca who can get police services if and when they need it. The city needs to make the case, in my opinion, for why BOCA needs a modern police headquarters based on public safety, operational needs, and the facts, period.