This is the fourth in a series of articles from One Boca, One Future spotlighting the City of Boca Raton’s most valuable yet under-realized growth area: The Northwest Sector, the space on the map between I-95 and Military Trail, Clint Moore Road and Spanish River Blvd.
Boca Raton is a tale of two cities. To the east, the city’s business corridor has office buildings, commercial plazas, restaurants and residences. In many areas, those workers who do commute in can leave their cars behind and walk to lunch – or mass transit service up and down the south Florida rail and commuter corridor.
It’s a live / work / play destination for the thousands who frequent the area daily.
Yet, to the west, where dozens of high-tech, 21st century businesses have changed the landscape and employ thousands more employees, facilities and services are few and far between.
Vehicular traffic is unreasonably high, as workers from across South Florida and with no local housing options endure long commutes. Lunch runs or errands require a car trip to the nearest café, eatery or commercial plaza.
The picture is taxing – on employers, their workers, the community and the city’s long-term prospects. Lack of sustainable development affects the city’s tax base, which is missing out on revenue opportunities that may only be realized when older, existing assets are given new life.
Amenity Rich and Community Focused
Visionaries looking at the Northwest Sector see a different future for the area – one whose physical and human infrastructure will be amenity rich and community focused. From west to east, the entire city will benefit from the improvements high-quality residential and commercial development can bring in service, heightened tax base, quality of life and the enhancement of greater Boca Raton.
Plans in place promise to remake an area left fallow since IBM dramatically downsized and mostly left the area in the 1980s. Just as many other areas like downtown Boca Raton have created plans to reinvent themselves, these efforts can help our city flourish as One Boca One Future.
Currently, the Northwest Corridor features a limited and constrained mix of amenities to serve existing and future employers and their employees. It has some of the area’s top ranked public schools, with Lynn University, Florida Atlantic University and Palm Beach State College nearby. Also close at hand – but sufficiently far to require car travel to patronize – are essential shopping, dining and residential services needed to serve the
sector’s robust and growing employee base.
Sustainable Develpment Concepts
Area employers note how a stronger infrastructure would better serve their existing employee base – providing essential services and suitable multifamily housing for their high-skilled, high-wage employees. Those who today commute from Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach or throughout Broward County to the south, instead will find suitable residential options in keeping with their educated, “Millennial” lifestyle. They’ll live close to work, support area businesses that enrich the tax base, while establishing roots in the local community.
Area development will be linked together by a network of commuting and transportation options. Working with the city and county, investor developers and business owners will maximize mass transit to carry workers from the Tri-Rail station to area businesses. Battery-powered and low-emission trolleys and shuttles will travel to and from area restaurants – for those employees who choose not to walk the route past lakes and
beneath shade trees.
Planned mobility and smart design are sustainable development concepts. Environmental and urban planning groups that support such initiatives include the National Multi Housing Council, the Sierra Club, the American Institute of Architects and the Urban Land Institute. These practices deliver an infrastructure that relies on proximity of residential, retail and employment to reduce reliance on cars. Deployed here, they will steer the sector into simpler, Boca Raton-centric living. Less traffic will mean less impact on the area’s existing infrastructure – and a lower carbon footprint and heat island effect on the climate.
Such private sector-backed services will reduce or eliminate any financial impact on the city and make a strong statement about Boca Raton and its commitment to creating the infrastructure necessary to steer Boca Raton forward in an environmentally respectful manner and reduce traffic and connect the community.
In the end, city leaders, landowners and business owners together can draft Boca Raton’s roadmap to renewed, city-wide prosperity – and transform the area into a dynamic live / work / play destination that is One Boca One Future.
The next story in this series – “Creating the New City of Tomorrow” – will run next week.