Council weighs Brightline in Boca

BOCA RATON – Boca Raton leaders appeared poised on Tuesday night to OK a new Brightline station downtown that would link passengers in the middle of the line between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

If the station gets the green light, riders who live somewhere between those two stations won’t have to drive half an hour to hop on the high-speed train to Miami and someday Orlando.

The plan includes a lease for the 1.8 acre of land next door to the city’s downtown library, and an ordinance allowing for the construction that will foster the train company’s goals of having the shiny new train station up and running by the end of next year.

For some, it could mean a closer place to board a high-speed train with stops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Brightline plans to expand the line to Orlando International Airport by

2022 with another stop in the Treasure Coast within five years. It’s also planning a station near Disney World, about 20 miles west of the airport.

Each Boca council member has expressed excitement over the deal, which they’ve said is an opportunity to bring more visitors downtown. They cite the city’s continued growth, strong corporate headquarter presence, a base of professionals who commute elsewhere and support from the business community.

The deal would connect riders to Boca’s downtown, where several new restaurants, stores and bars will open up this month and in the new year in Mizner Park. City leaders want to build a pedestrian bridge over Dixie Highway that would land people a block or so from the development.

The plan hasn’t evaded skeptics who think the project is too ambitious to meet such a hasty deadline, and residents nearby in the Library Commons neighborhood who don’t want the train station and parking garage directly behind their homes. They’ve also voiced concerns about environmental effects from the influx of cars — and their exhaust emissions — to the area. Many suspect that Brightline, currently rebranding as Virgin Trains USA, will buy up surrounding properties to build high rise developments around the station.

Boca would contribute the land at $1 per year and pay Brightline in semimonthly installments to build the 400-space public parking garage, which is expected to cost about $12.1 million.

Brightline said it would pay to replace any library parking spaces lost in construction, and library patrons will have 64 spaces available to them. The city will pay for the rest of the garage, Brightline will pay to maintain and insure it, and they’ll split the profits from the garage.

Critics have complained of a “sweetheart deal” for Brightline, and say the city is essentially giving the land to the company. Boca Mayor Scott Singer says that isn’t true.

“The real cost is the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to operate, maintain and insure the parking garage,” Singer said Monday. “Brightline is responsible for the taxes, operational costs, maintenance, insurance, and any tax increases. The city is getting the benefit of half of the profits of the parking garage and zero of the expenses to run it, a cost we might otherwise have.”

To fast-track the Boca station, Brightline abandoned efforts to secure land around the proposed station that it would use for residential towers. The company can still try to acquire the property later and wants first right of refusal of the land.

To quell neighboring residents’ concerns, Brightline officials moved the proposed parking garage an additional 20 feet south.

That helps preserve the pedestrian trail south of the neighborhood between the development and the train station and its parking garage.

Brightline will also pay to relocate the city’s downtown community garden to make way for the station.

The train company has been under fire recently for the number of deaths on the tracks, which far surpass the rate of deaths on the tracks of its public counterpart, Tri-Rail, and other lines across the nation in its first two years of operation.

Building attention on train deaths prompted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to order the state’s transportation agency to pursue more safety measures. Brightline recently partnered with Tri-Rail in a campaign to stop suicide by train.