TEMPLE TERRACE — Temple Terrace voters will decide Aug. 18 whether to give the green light to the city to build its first standalone police headquarters and a third fire station, something city leaders feel is long overdue. But the vote comes just as residents are facing the prospect of more than $80 million in water system upgrades tied to aging infrastructure and PFAS contamination.
And there is still the question of the state’s property tax reform, which will be on the ballot in November and could throw a wrench into any plans.
Mayor Andy Ross is quick to note the water and public safety initiatives have nothing to do with each other financially — the water work is funded through a revenue bond and paid by residents via water rates, not property taxes like the police and fire station — but acknowledges the optics aren’t ideal.
“We didn’t know that was coming,” Ross said of the water bill timing. “We didn’t know the property tax ballot was coming either... the timing turned out to be not the best.”
Ross, however, said he’s optimistic the measure will pass, based on the feedback he has received from the public. Public safety and infrastructure bond measures have historically done well with voters nationally, especially when financing projects like police and fire stations.
If voters approve the initiative, the general obligation bond would be repaid by a separate line item on property tax bills rather than through the city’s budget. On a home assessed at $250,000, the estimated hit is $225 to $245 a year over 30 years, though if property values and the city’s tax base grows, that number could be adjusted downward.
The pitch for new digs for the police has been years in the making. The city acquired the 5-acre parcel at 7911 Harney Road for $1.6 million in 2024, and determined the property was big enough to also include a third fire station to help cover the east side.
“We have this opportunity again to develop both at the same time,” City Manager Carlos Baia said at a workshop earlier this year. “The benefit of developing both at the same time would be, obviously, a cost savings because you have one mobilization.”
Construction estimates run up to $34.6 million for the police station, and $10.7 million for the fire station, with the $50 million total providing a cushion against inflation between now and groundbreaking.
Police Chief Rob Staley said his department has done roughly 26 presentations over the last six months with a variety of groups and organizations.
Few dispute that the police department has outgrown its current space. It has operated out of an 11,000-square-foot footprint on the third floor of City Hall since the late 1970s, when 26 officers served roughly 11,000 residents. Now, there are 57 officers and 20 civilian staff serving a city of more than 28,000, still squeezed into that same space, with no room for a SWAT van and reserve vehicles, which are stored elsewhere.
“Even back in 1986, the police chief Tom Matthews said we were out of space at the time,” Staley said.
As an example of the limited space, Staley said the department currently holds about 40,000 pieces of evidence in the evidence section, and “we’ve gotten to the point where we can’t put any more storage on the third floor here because it’ll compromise the structural integrity of the building.”
On the fire side, it’s all about response times. Calls in the area a future Station 3 would serve are averaging 8 minutes, 29 seconds, well off the city’s 6-minute, 40-second benchmark for a Class 1 department.
Left unaddressed, the fire department projects that number could grow to 10-12 minutes by 2035, as growth on the east side keeps adding call volume.
That $50 million price tag has caused some consternation with residents, especially with water rates also expected to rise because of PFAS treatment and long-planned water plant upgrades.
“What I say to people is, well, you’re right. It’s a lot of money, no doubt about it,” Ross said. “But we’ve needed a police station for at least 30 years, maybe longer, and had we built it then, it probably would have been $8 million. But if we don’t build it now, that same building is going to be 75 million dollars in two years. Every year that we kick it down the road, which we’ve been doing for 30 years, that expense just gets larger.”
The good news, Ross points out, is that the city isn’t drowning in debt. In fact, it carries only $9 million in debt against a budget of more than $100 million. The city could pay that off tomorrow if it wanted to, he said, but it doesn’t because the rate is a fixed 2%.
Even a yes vote won’t immediately open the taxpayer spigot. The mayor said the bond won’t be issued until 2027, after they see how the statewide property tax measure shakes out.
Construction, if all goes well, wouldn’t’ begin until 2028, with both buildings opening around 2029 or 2030.
The city, Ross added, is addressing infrastructure it has long neglected.
“We’ve deferred doing stuff,” he said. “We’ve needed a police station for 30 years. We haven’t done anything. The water treatment plant has been scabbed together, you know, for 40 years or more. We have components of that water treatment plant that date to the 1960s. So this is all overdue.”