Boca Raton residents gathered Saturday afternoon at the Boca Raton Community Center for the first of three listening sessions this month on Memorial Park and the surrounding downtown civic area. The city’s consultant, ChenMoore, split the crowd into six groups of at least eight people, who filled out paper surveys and reported back to the room.
Senior planner Lance Lilly and four other ChenMoore associates led the discussion. Residents were asked what they value about the park and which features should be kept, and what improvements they would make over the next five, 10 years and beyond.
Several ideas came up in nearly every group. Participants wanted shaded seating, a walking and biking trail around the park’s edge, restrooms and an indoor fieldhouse. They also asked that the park’s banyan trees, open green space and the Singing Pines building, the former Children’s Museum dating to 1913, be preserved. Tennis courts drew support, but no group wanted pickleball. All six groups agreed the park needs clearer signs honoring military veterans and Boca Raton’s World War II history as an Army Airfield base.
Lilly said the city hired the 40-year-old firm for its “listen first, design second” approach. Three design charrettes are scheduled for December, with more listening sessions in November. A feedback survey is available through the city’s website. The process has four phases that began in September and will lead to a proposed master plan presented to the City Council in March.
