TEMPLE TERRACE, Fla. — While discussions about a new police station in Temple Terrace started decades ago, the project is one step closer to becoming a reality after city leaders voted to put it into the hands of voters. 

The Temple Terrace City Council unanimously approved putting a general obligation bond for $50 million on the primary election ballot in August. It would pay for a new public safety complex that would house the Police Department and Fire Station 3.

What You Need To Know

Temple Terrace City Council voted earlier this month to put a measure on the primary election ballot that asks residents to decide whether to approve a $50 million general obligation bond for construction of a public safety complex

The complex would be built on Harney Road and would be the new home of the Temple Terrace Police Department and Fire Station 3

The city manager told council members the department has been housed on the third floor of City Hall since the late 1970s

Police Chief Rob Staley said his department has outgrown the space, growing to 57 officers and 20 civilian employees — up from around 20 officers and 11 civilians in the early 1980s

If approved, residents would have to pay more in taxes, but city leaders say they will likely see a cost increase either way.

“We’re going to need to grow,” said Mayor Andy Ross. “We’re going to grow on the police side, we’re going to need to grow on the fire side. We also need our own training facility.”

During a presentation from City Manager Carlos Baia at the City Council’s Feb. 3 workshop, he said police started working out of the third floor of City Hall in the late 1970s.

“We’ve almost tripled our size for sworn officers over the last 40 years, and we’re still in the same footprint,” said Police Chief Rob Staley. “So, we’ve gone from 20 officers all the way up to 57 sworn.”

Working out of an 11,000 square-foot space, Staley said the department has tried to make it work.

“This room was used to train all of our officers,” he said of the community liaison room. “Now, we’ve had to take over this room because we just ran out of space.”

Staley said the department’s evidence room holds about 40,000 pieces of evidence.

“We had to do a bunch of additions to this room to optimize the space,” he said. “So currently, we have these rolling cabinets here that we could store evidence into, but if you think of this building, it’s only rated for a certain weight up here. It’s not built for more than this.”

He said officers are collecting much more evidence today than when they first moved in because the city’s population has more than doubled. According to Baia’s presentation, the city’s population was around 11,000 in 1982. That number has increased to more than 28,000 currently. 

The new complex would be built at 7911 Harney Road, and Baia said during the meeting that the city bought the five acre parcel in 2024 for $1.6 million with part of the proceeds from the sale of Raulerson Ranch. Among the police station’s new features would be an enhanced evidence room and training facility.

Staley said it’s something the department has waited on for a long time.

“If you look at some of the older articles when they were talking about building a police department in the past, this article’s from 1986,” he said, referring to an enlarged newspaper article hanging in a station hallway. “The cost associated with it was $1.4 million. So, you kind of see as the years have gone on, things have become more and more expensive as far as construction is concerned, obviously.”

If approved by voters, the city would use a $50 million bond to pay for the project. Ross said the cost would be passed on as a line item on property taxes that is separate from the city’s assessment. He said the average household would pay approximately $180 per year for 30 years.

According to Ross, that amount could go up and down from year to year, with a greater likelihood of it dipping below $180.

He said a “no” vote on funding for the project doesn’t necessarily mean residents won’t see cost increases. The new facility is expected to improve fire response times, which Ross said were times are creeping up. If the trend keeps up, the department’s certification could be downgraded, which could cause residents to pay more in homeowner’s insurance.

“The future’s going to bring cost increase in some fashion,” Ross said. “I would much rather invest in something that’s going to serve the city well for the next 30-40 years, as opposed to just being behind the curve.”

Residents will get to vote on the bond during the Aug. 18 primary election. Ross said the city is going to hold town hall meetings and get literature out to the community so they can learn more about the project ahead of time.