Urban Forests: Why We Must Fight to Preserve Boca Raton’s.

Boca Raton’s public urban forests and its amazing trees on public land are some of our most valuable public assets.  Despite being “built out,” Boca is lucky to still have designated parkland that retains a forest feel. This is unlike many other built-out Florida cities where leadership failed to prioritize this quality-of-life asset. In fact, Boca Raton has been a certified Tree City USA for 44 years. But with our current City Council, our luck has run out. Residents must now fight to save Boca.

The City of Boca Raton government seems to regard our public urban forests and what remains of its tree canopy as simply undeveloped land – nothing more than the equivalent of empty parking lots. This mindset is alarming because our tree forests in our public parks should be protected as irreplaceable assets that, once lost, can never be regained. 

Uncovered Hidden Plan – Destruction at City Hall

Prior to the spotlight being put on the government campus development, the hidden plan appears to have been to cut down the two iconic banyan trees in front of city hall.  Since the beginning of the year, the city maintained on their FAQ for the project that the proposal “includes plans to preserve the banyan trees on campus.” Not once was there ever mention of banyan trees being cut down, relocated, or otherwise affected. 

When citizen involvement grew it prompted analysis of the site plan. It then became clear that one of the high-rise condo buildings of Terra/Frisbee would be right where the two iconic banyan trees of city hall stand.  Once brought to light, the city and the developer responded that they would be relocated.  If these two trees did somehow manage to be relocated, the chances of survival would be slim. So, it must be asked: How could the City of Boca even consider jeopardizing the survival of 100+ year-old, iconic banyans?

Since the unmasking, Terra/Frisbee revised their proposed plan to keep the banyans in place. HOWEVER, the current proposed plan document still includes the destruction of the large tree garden called “City Hall Plaza” at the corner of Palmetto Park Road and NW 2^nd Avenue.  This tree garden maintains an extensive tree canopy of old, established trees. It includes an 80 year-old black olive and an 80 year-old Royal Poinciana. Other trees in there are 50+ years-old.  All are set to be cut down so Terra/Frisbee can build a high-rise condo building on the “undeveloped land”.

It Gets Worse – Destruction at Sugar Sand Park

City Hall’s willingness to wipe out our mature tree canopy extends to Sugar Sand Park. Their plans are to destroy an 11-acre urban forest site inside the park to make way for a softball field complex. This 11-acre natural tree oasis with vast canopy is not “undeveloped land”, but rather, it is a unique and invaluable asset to our city and public park land. 

The city only seems to see this tree forest as no different than an empty parking lot, ripe to destroy and erect whatever they see fit with no input from citizens. Nearby residents of Sugar Sand Park have consistently voiced concerns about this plan on Nextdoor and other forums. 

One nearby resident who is walking distance from the park, after reading the recent September 10^th email from the City that stated they will “continue with the development of the softball complex at Sugar Sand Park,” said that destruction of Sugar Sand’s forest to build softball fields should also be part of the referendum vote on the government campus.  The resident wrote, “Does anyone know if there has been any study concerning destroying thousands of trees and the wildlife habitat?  Is there a way to stop this project and include it in the vote?”

But Worser Still – Destruction at Spanish River Library

Worse yet, the City of Boca’s plan is to level roughly 20-acres just east of the Spanish River Library. This site has vast and established tree canopies. Their plan is to build a monstrous $190M police station. Similar to the site at Sugar Sand Park, the Spanish River Library site is a living, breathing public forest comprised of mature trees. It should not be destroyed for a police station building.

This valuable urban forest that includes the prized Blue Lake Trail should be permanently designated as a nature preserve—we can remove the concrete there and plant more trees so it may serve as a natural oasis for benefit and enjoyment of all residents of Boca Raton, our children and future generations of our city. 

This is not 1975. It is 2025. The City of Boca needs to get out of an outdated mindset that sees valuable park land and public urban forests as empty parcels no different than parking lots. The City should be protecting and enhancing our green space and urban forests, not actively destroying them without second thought.  Why aren’t we prioritizing the preservation of what remaining areas of public forest and tree canopy we have left?

From the outset of the government campus plan, the loss of trees was not clearly disclosed.  The plan labeled itself as “Net Zero” while failing to mention the planned destruction.  This should have been disclosed right away, and yet it was not.  The relocation plans of the police station and the softball fields were also void of information discussing the environmental impact and loss of trees.

Call to Action

I believe residents of Boca want a community with values, a strong sense of place, and a commitment to sustainability, livability, and quality of life.  I ask you:

I am calling on the City to:

1. Scrap their plan to level the 11-acre urban forest at Sugar Sand Park—we have the softball fields in Memorial Park. They don’t have to be relocated in order to improve them. 
2. Rebuild the police station in downtown on a footprint that does not destroy our trees on public land. 

We can rebuild and improve our city government campus while maintaining and preserving the invaluable natural elements and tree forests that make this city so special, unique and desirable to live in. Please join me in calling on the the City Council to do this.