Riviera Beach council approves Barracuda Bay site for new police headquarters after heated debate

The Riviera Beach City Council voted Feb. 4 to approve ordinances that will allow construction of a new police headquarters at 1621 West Blue Heron Boulevard, the Barracuda Bay property, approving the land-use change and companion right-of-way abandonment needed to move the project forward.

Council members and staff framed the vote as the next step in a multi-year infrastructure program. Clarence Sermons, the city’s director of development services, told the council the item before them was a second and final reading and that there had been no changes since first reading. City Manager Jonathan Evans and staff said the design work for the project is complete, that roughly $3,500,000 has already been spent on design, and that a March council meeting will consider a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) that could allow construction to begin within 30 days of approval.

The project has been presented by staff as operationally necessary. Supporters, including Julie Botel and several residents who spoke during public comment, said the police department has been operating out of leased office space that is not designed for law-enforcement functions and that a permanent facility will improve response capacity and officer safety. “They deserve it,” resident Erica Davis said of the police, urging the council to stop delays.

Opponents and some council members raised multiple concerns. Residents and speakers cautioned that siting the headquarters next to a busy school corridor could worsen traffic and jeopardize student safety during peak drop-off and pickup times. Several speakers urged the city to consider locating the station on the City Hall campus or another site already owned by the city. “Why demolish Barracuda Bay when it was built in 2004?” Cindy March asked, questioning the cost-benefit of removing the existing aquatics facility.

Council debate also focused on legal and financial constraints. The manager said bond-validation documents submitted to the court cite a site and that bond counsel had opined relocating the station could jeopardize access to $35,000,000 in bonding proceeds. The city attorney said he had not seen a site-specific restriction in the court’s order and noted the ballot question itself did not list a location, a point that drew follow-up discussion from council members and staff.

Procurement and project staff warned the council that changing the site now would likely require re-soliciting design and construction contracts and rerunning procurement steps that had been done on a site-specific basis, which would add months or years and additional costs. The procurement director said the original solicitation referenced a state-of-the-art facility at the specified address, and that some bidders may not have bid if an alternate location had been listed.

Police leadership answered questions about operational impact and crime geography. The chief said most officers work in the field by zone and that the proposed location places administrative, dispatch and back-office functions near the city’s higher-crime zones; during the discussion the chief provided a figure assigning 44.3% of the city’s violent crime to the two northern zones that include Monroe Heights and Federal Gardens.

After public comment and extensive council discussion, the vote to approve the land-use change passed with Councilperson Davis Penier recorded as dissenting; the companion abandonment ordinance also passed. The manager said the next scheduled step is the March agenda, when staff will seek authorization of a GMP; if the GMP is approved the manager said a groundbreaking could be scheduled in mid-March and that the project team is preparing permits and final pricing to support that step.

The council and staff also discussed replacement plans for the Barracuda Bay aquatics facility. Staff said the current water-park facility operates a limited number of days per year and that alternatives and a fast-track design for a replacement are underway, with staff projecting construction documents and a potential 2027 opening if the design and permitting schedule stays on the stated fast track. Exact funding sources and final schedule for the replacement pool were described as still under development.

What’s next: staff will return to the council in March for GMP authorization; the council asked for and staff agreed to provide more data on traffic mitigation plans, crime statistics, and a clearer timetable and funding plan for replacement aquatics facilities.