Boca outlines park plans

Sales tax money will also go to repave roads

A new downtown park and improvements to more than a dozen others could be in Boca Raton’s future sooner than the city expected.

With a major overhaul of Boca's parks on the way, officials are thinking of using the nearly $53 million expected from a recent countywide sales tax increase to get a head start on plans beginning next year.

The city for the first time last week detailed its plans for $16 million in sales-tax money in its proposed budget. The projects: Lake Wyman and Rutherford Park: For $175,000, the parks would get designs for new dugouts, fencing, bleachers and pathways. Later plans also call for removing evasive plants and adding new landscaping.

Hillsboro/El Rio Park: Nearly $6.5 million would bring new fencing, tennis and pickleball courts, and repairs to the existing facilities.

Wild Flower Park: About $1.5 million in renovations to the former Wildflower restaurant site would transform the 2-acre slab of pavement into a park. So far, plans include a new seawall and a connection path to Silver Palm Park.

Waterfront parks: The city may set aside $1 million to start on upgrades to 10 other waterfront parks, but designs have yet to be finalized. The parks are Red Reef Park, South Beach Park, Spanish River Park, Ocean Strand, Palmetto Dunes Park, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, Silver Palm Park, Carriage Hill Park, Camino Villas Park and Golden Fig Park.