Boca Raton council directs staff to fold Brightline station TOD into government campus master plan

Councilors in Boca Raton directed staff to combine planning for the Brightline Station transit-oriented community with the citys government campus master plan, concluding the projects are closely tied and should be developed together rather than in isolation. The decision came during day three of a three-day strategic planning workshop focused on transportation and mobility.

Trina Pulliam, the workshop facilitator from Trainovations, framed the discussion as a choice about where to place the Brightline-area transit work in the strategic plan. Development Services Director Brandon Schad said much of the land near the station is owned by the city and argued the city could not "figure this out without at the same time figuring out the government campus plan." He asked whether the Brightline project should be combined with the campus master plan because the two efforts are interconnected.

Council members responded that the Brightline-area TOC (transit-oriented community) and the campus master plan are "100% intertwined," and that a translatable set of TOD/TOC regulations should be retained citywide even if the downtown, Brightline-area work is combined with campus planning. One council member urged staff to "Boca Ratonize" the TOC definition so it reflects local priorities including mixed uses and walkability.

Councilors also noted potential near-term impacts from regional rail service changes: one member said a Tri-Rail express connection could increase ridership at the Boca station and influence demand for nearby housing and services. Staff and council agreed to remove project 24007 from standalone status and roll its Brightline-station planning into the campus master-plan project while keeping a separate, location-neutral TOD/TOC regulatory component in the strategic list.

Brandon Schad said staff will reword the project title and short description to reflect the combined approach and return the updated language for the strategy. The change aims to align planning for public land uses, potential infrastructure investments and development regulations so that any future redevelopment near the rail station advances the councils strategic objectives and can be measured against shared outcomes.

Next steps: staff will revise project descriptions, merge the Brightline-area TOD work into the campus master-plan effort, and preserve a separate, citywide TOD regulatory component to guide future locations and parcel-specific planning.