Developer revises downtown campus plan, reduces density and pledges more green space; council and residents call for more outreach

A developer team presenting an updated proposal to redevelop Boca Raton’s downtown government campus told the City Council Sept. 8 that the plan has been scaled back and reworked to add more park space, preserve banyan trees and reduce residential and commercial intensity while still delivering funding to pay for new civic facilities.

David Martin of the Boca City Center team and partner Robert (Rob) Frisbie told the council they reduced the project’s footprint and density after community feedback. The latest plan, the presenters said, lowers the project’s residential total to about 740 units from earlier counts (initial plans showed roughly 1,100 units, and an intermediate iteration was about 900). The team also said it removed a proposed hotel and one previously proposed office building, reduced retail from about 140,000 square feet to roughly 80,000 square feet, and relocated the children’s playground beneath an existing stand of banyan trees to preserve…