North Port voters to decide on funding for new police HQ in May special election
NORTH PORT, Fla. (WFLA) — The City of North Port continues to grow at a rapid rate.
Many projects are in the works to accommodate that growth, but one that has yet to begin is construction on a new police headquarters.
Last year, we got a tour of the existing 32,000 square foot police HQ, which is now about 200% over capacity. When it opened in 2006, the police force was made up of 79 sworn officers and 30 staff members.
Today, that number is twice as large. There are 158 sworn officers and 57 civilian staffers.
With that growth, the city has had to get creative, retrofitting the existing building. Numerous spaces throughout the building have been turned into office space, such as conference rooms, filing areas, and closets.
There are plans that have been approved for a new police headquarters on Toledo Blade Boulevard, but for it to move forward as planned, voters would have to approve the financing for the project in a referendum this month.
'The city of North Port is the only city in Florida out of 411 municipalities that cannot borrow without going to referendum, so we are hoping all of our citizens, our voting citizens come out and support this,' Mayor Phil Stokes said.
According to the city's website, a 'yes' vote on Election Day would 'would authorize the City to issue bonds up to $115 million to pay for the new police headquarters. The average North Port homeowner with an assessed property value of $246,400 would see an initial property tax increase of $121.38 – about $10 a month or 33 cents a day. This cost would go down over time as it is spread out among more residents moving to North Port.
Stokes said kicking the can down the road could end up costing taxpayers even more.
'Every year you wait, it goes up 8 to 10% in this market,' he continued. 'It is just unbelievable. As we have seen with our Price Boulevard widening project, 15 years ago, it would have cost five or six million dollars. Now it costs $80 million. That is what can happen when you kick the can down the road.
'It is the cheapest way to go. If we have to go find a third-party to build it and then lease it with an option to buy, it is going to cost all of us taxpayers is a lot more money, so we are really hoping people understand the need here. We have doubled and tripled our size, we have 104 mi.² to police and we truly need this facility.'
The special election is set for May 13. Early voting starts May 5.
There are four other referendums on the ballot. You can find information on those by clicking here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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