It will be open to the public to return absentee ballots if they don’t trust sending their votes by mail. They also can register to vote or change their party affiliation there. And the canvassing board, the quasi-judicial panel overseeing the election count, will meet in the new digs.

The second county project in the works will take longer.

A 74,800-square-foot building housing the Broward County Property Appraiser’s office and accompanying Value Adjustment Board, as well as Regional 911 Emergency Services and Communications, could open as early as 2025.

The $11,449,350 building at 1801 NW 49 St. in Fort Lauderdale was purchased in 2019. It’s just a half-mile east of the building where the elections office and warehouse would open.

Residents can go to the Property Appraiser’s Office to file to receive a homestead exemption, or to the companion Value Adjustment Board to appeal their home’s assessed value if they think it has been set too high.

And the 911 communications center will replace the existing one in Coconut Creek, which was slammed in a consultant report last year because “bathrooms have no hot water, and harsh lighting, which reportedly causes eye strain and headaches.”

County spokesman Greg Meyer said the new location will have a suite for nursing mothers, and a “bigger and better” quiet room for 911 call-takers who need time out after handling an emotionally taxing call. The new facility will be a “better experience for them,” he said.

The county had purchased the Citrix building and property in early 2019 and the design process started in 2020. But when COVID-19 took hold, the county allowed the Department of Health to occupy the facility until mid-2021 for contact tracing efforts.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2024.

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(Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash)

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