Boca Raton voters head to the polls on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, to decide whether the city will move forward with the hotly debated One Boca Downtown Campus Redevelopment. The proposal would place roughly 7.8 acres of city-owned land near the Brightline station under a 99-year ground lease with a Terra/Frisbie development team, in exchange for a mixed-use package of housing, commercial space, and new civic buildings. The referendum is the climax of months of packed meetings, petitions, and court challenges that have turned this into one of Boca Raton’s most divisive fights in recent memory.
What’s on the ballot
As outlined by the City of Boca Raton, the City Council approved Ordinance No. 5769 on Jan. 20, 2026. The ordinance authorizes a Master Partnership Agreement and a 99-year ground lease for approximately 7.8 acres east of NW 2nd Avenue, but only if voters sign off in the March 10 referendum. The city says it would keep ownership of the land and lease it to Boca Raton City Center, LLC (the Terra/Frisbie team) so the developer can build private improvements. The city’s project page also posts the full Master Partnership Agreement, financial analyses, and the official ballot language. Earlier stages of the project were covered in a March 2025 report: Boca Raton advances downtown.
The proposal
The master plan calls for a transit-oriented, mixed-use district that includes multifamily housing, office space, retail, a grocery store, and a 180-room hotel, and would add roughly 765 rental units to the downtown campus, WPTV reports. Developers are also touting more green space, better pedestrian connections, and new public plazas, along with a relocated city hall and community center bundled into the deal. Supporters say the plan finally pays for overdue municipal upgrades, while critics warn about traffic, building height, and what the project could mean for Memorial Park.
Why residents are split
Most of the organized opposition has lined up behind a grassroots group called Save Boca, which argues the city should not lease or effectively privatize public land and has pushed for charter changes that would require voter approval for major land deals, according to WPBF. Opponents say the development would permanently change Memorial Park and limit access to sports fields, playgrounds and tennis courts. Supporters counter that the latest revisions trimmed the area to be leased and preserve or even expand some park features in the current designs.
Court battles and petitions
The political fight has spilled into the courts. A Palm Beach County judge pulled two Save Boca ballot questions from a January special election after a lawsuit that challenged the wording of the petitions, Boca Daily News reported. Save Boca kept pressing its case, and elections officials ultimately verified 3,616 petition signatures in the fall, a milestone noted by WPTV, while attorneys on both sides traded legal filings. All of that legal and procedural wrangling helped push the matter onto the March 10 citywide ballot.
What happens if voters say yes
If voters approve the referendum, the Master Partnership Agreement and long-term lease would still depend on rezoning, site-plan approval and other regulatory steps laid out by the City of Boca Raton. City documents also state that if the measure fails, the agreements become null and void and neither side has any further obligation under the deal. If the vote passes, the city and developers would head into more detailed design work and additional community meetings before any construction can start.
Why the March 10 vote matters
Backers of One Boca frame it as a rare chance to modernize downtown and build a new city hall without raising taxes. Opponents see a 99-year handoff of public land to private control. For a single box on a Tuesday ballot, the stakes are high: the result will shape how Boca Raton handles large, transit-oriented growth and public-private development deals for years to come.
