Boca Raton Memorial Park Master Plan: The Timeline for Resident Input

The plan that replaced One Boca is not a development deal. It covers the clay courts, the community center, City Hall and the World War II park west of NW 2nd Avenue, and it runs on a six-month clock. Of its $519,925 budget, about 10 cents of every dollar goes to the phase where residents talk and the planners listen.

The building concepts that come out of the design phase will be shaped by whoever shows up during those few listening sessions. As of October 12, 2026, none of the session dates have been announced.

Voters turned down a lease. The new plan covers the buildings people use.

On March 10, 2026, Boca Raton voters rejected the One Boca proposal 14,122 to 4,832, roughly three to one against, according to the results The Coastal Star published. The City Council had approved the deal 4–1 on January 20 as a 99-year lease and master agreement with developers Terra and Frisbie Group. It needed voter approval to go forward.

The rejected version put the private building on about 7.8 acres east of NW Second Avenue and south of the Brightline station. The Sun Sentinel's pre-vote rundown listed what was planned there: 765 rental units, 182 condominiums with 77 set aside as workforce housing, 120,000 square feet of office space, nearly 80,000 square feet of retail, a grocery store and a hotel. The 17.5 acres west of NW Second Avenue were to stay city-owned for civic uses and Memorial Park. The same ballot also turned down a $175 million police headquarters bond, 9,733 to 8,067.

Here's what changed after the vote. In 2025 and early 2026, the public argument was about the private side of the deal: rentals, height and a long lease. The new effort starts on the west side, the part One Boca had already set aside as civic land. The Coastal Star reports that the planning firm will concentrate on the 17 acres west of Northwest Second Avenue, where City Hall, the Community Center and Memorial Park sit today. It also reports that developers who stand to profit will not be part of the project. None of the rental units, hotel or retail from the rejected plan are part of the current process.

What is actually on the table

On September 8, 2026, the council voted 3–0 to approve Resolution No. 113-2026, with one member recused and one absent. It authorizes a professional services agreement with Chen Moore and Associates for $519,925 plus up to $52,000 in contingency, or $571,925 in total. Chen Moore is an engineering, planning and design firm headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, and the council had ranked it first among the finalists on July 28.

The resolution lists what the plan covers, as reported by Boca Post:

• Memorial Park, which honors World War II veterans. Veterans will be consulted on its plans.
• The Boca Raton Tennis Center at 271 NW Boca Raton Blvd. Its booking site lists 10 Har-Tru clay courts, programs for children and adults, ball-machine rentals and private lessons. Programs listed there include B-2 team clinics and Seven Tennis Academy groups for ages 4–6, 7–11 and 12–18, plus advanced players.
• Singing Pines at 498 Crawford Boulevard. The Boca Raton Historical Society lists it as a designated historic site and links it to the Children's Museum.
• City Hall and the Community Center, plus the public spaces and rights-of-way around them.

The Coastal Star reports that Chen Moore has committed to keeping the banyan trees on the site and is open to Addison Mizner-style architecture for any new building. The design phase will produce up to two conceptual alternatives for City Hall, the Community Center, the Tennis Center and Singing Pines. In practice, a resident who plays on those clay courts on a Saturday morning is looking at a process that could produce two different futures for the facility, and the council will choose between them.

Where the $519,925 goes

The staff memo from City Manager Mark Sohaney splits the lump sum into four phases over about six months. The percentages below are calculated from those line items.

Community listening is the smallest line in the contract. The design charrette, the concentrated working session where concepts get drawn, costs almost five times as much. That makes sense for a design contract, since drawings take more hours than meetings do. It also means public input arrives early and in a fixed amount, and most of the effort after that goes into turning it into plans.

The scope also got smaller before the vote. Deputy City Manager Andrew Lukasik told the council that staff and the firm had spent the previous month scaling the work back from the version presented during selection. "We've been right sizing that process," he said, as Boca Post reported. The charrette was cut from three days to two and a half, and a separate final public engagement event was removed. That leaves the listening phase as the main structured chance for residents to weigh in before concepts exist.

Funding comes from the Resident-Led Memorial Park Enhancements line of the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 Capital Improvement Program, and the memo says no additional appropriation is needed.

The order residents come in

Here is how the contract lays it out, according to Boca Post:

1. Phase one, before the public. Individual interviews with each council member, plus meetings with the Parks and Recreation Board and members of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District. A public engagement plan then goes back to the council before outreach begins.
2. Phase two, the listening window. Up to six small-group listening sessions, up to six stakeholder sessions, a community survey and appearances at two community events.
3. Phase three, the charrette. A two-and-a-half-day design session that produces up to two concepts for the four facilities.
4. Phase four, adoption. A draft goes to a council workshop, and a final plan comes back for adoption.

Every number in phase two is a maximum: up to six sessions of each kind. The contract doesn't say which two community events the planners will attend. The city's fall calendar already includes the downtown Night Market at Sanborn Square, 72 N. Federal Highway, on November 5 and December 10, 2026, and Red, White & Boca, a free Veterans Day event at Mizner Park Amphitheater on November 11 from 4 to 7 p.m. None of those has been named as a planning stop.

As of October 12, 2026, no listening-session dates, survey link or dedicated project page had been published in the sources this post draws on. The engagement plan has to go back to the council first, so the next public signal will most likely show up on a council agenda.

What the six-month clock does and doesn't decide

If the work holds to roughly six months from the September 8 approval, a final plan would reach the council around March 2027. That date is an estimate from the contract length. The city hasn't announced it. The contract covers planning only. It includes no construction schedule.

Cost is the other open question. In April, shortly after the referendum, city leaders described a city-led reset with an upgraded Memorial Park, a new City Hall and community center, and new recreation facilities. The Coastal Star reported a preliminary overall estimate of $250 million, with no settled financing plan. That figure came before any design work and isn't an adopted budget. The master plan is what will give the city something specific to price.

Police headquarters planning is running on a separate track. According to Boca Post's October 2 update, city staff prefer a new two-story headquarters near Spanish River and Broken Sound boulevards plus a small downtown station. The alternative is a six-story headquarters next to the current downtown station. Both concepts are about 90,000 to 100,000 square feet, compared with about 165,000 in the bond voters rejected. A bond vote has been floated for March 2027, but the council hasn't approved a ballot question, a site or a design. If both timelines hold, the civic campus plan and a possible police bond could come up at about the same time.

For now, the banyans are promised to stay, the clay courts are in scope, and the listening sessions have yet to be scheduled.

Decisions about City Hall, Memorial Park and the Tennis Center shape how downtown Boca Raton looks and works over the next decade, and Amy Awerbuch follows them as closely as she follows sales. If you own near the civic campus and want to know what your home is worth while the plan takes shape, start with a free home valuation. Amy can walk you through what's been decided so far and what's still open.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.