Staff: adding 1,000 multifamily units to CIMD would be manageable but traffic mitigation needed

Brandon Shadd, Development Services director, presented a level-of-service analysis to the Boca Raton City Council on March 23 that evaluated impacts if the city authorizes 1,000 additional multifamily units under the CIMD pre‑approval (ordinance 5,684).

Shadd said parks currently meet the city standard (11 acres per 1,000 population) and that Boca Raton’s roughly 1,600 acres of parks equate to about 14.5 acres per 1,000 after adding an estimated 2,300 residents (1,000 units × 2.3 persons per unit). He said sanitary sewer and potable water systems are in good shape, and stormwater requirements are enforced at each development through engineering standards.

On public safety, Shadd said the projected demand from 1,000 units equates to about 140 police calls per year — roughly the workload of two officers at current service levels — and about 122 fire/EMS calls annually, based on multifamily averages from 2025.

Shadd also summarized school‑district projections: the 1,000 units would generate an estimated 27 elementary, 13 middle and 19 high‑school students. He cautioned that district boundaries and program enrollments (choice programs and vouchers) affect capacity projections and that the district’s 2029–2030 enrollment figures do not account for possible boundary changes.

The most significant infrastructure concern was traffic. Shadd presented a background‑traffic forecast that, independent of new development, shows projected level‑of‑service failures at multiple intersections by 2036 (Spanish River Boulevard, Clintmore Road, Congress Avenue, Palmetto Park Road and Glades Road). He recommended mitigation options including expanding Boca Connect shuttle service, closing multimodal network gaps (sidewalks, trails), targeted turn‑lane and signal upgrades, and corridor improvements funded in part by development participation or capital planning.

Council members asked staff about incorporating developer funding for mitigation and whether private‑school enrollment was counted. Shadd said the school projections account for a portion of students attending private schools but did not include private‑school capacity as part of the city’s LOS metric. Councilmembers discussed using development participation to help pay for transportation improvements.

Staff did not present a formal budget or funding agreement at the workshop; the analysis was a level‑of‑service update to inform council deliberations on the CIMD ordinance.