Washington Park Neighborhood Preservation and Enhancement Dist.

" Washington Park Undergoes Change "

Oct 24, 2003

New homes dot resurgent central Broward neighborhood

By Toni Marshall
Staff Writer
Posted October 24 2003

Sonia Garner and her neighbor Yetunde Oladimeji chat about the new homes in their neighborhood.

The buzz around Washington Park these days centers on the new 3,500-square-foot house across the narrow branch of the river and the rapidly disappearing lots bought up by local developers.











"I love the changes. This is really great," said Garner, who lives in the 2900 block of Northwest Eighth Road, surveying nearby new homes with manicured lawns and two-car garages. The story of Washington Park is one the county hopes to see duplicated across central Broward County, an example of a community coming together, making rules and sticking with them and grabbing hold of more than $8 million worth of new sidewalks, streets, entrances and other new construction.

"The area was so stagnant, dull and dark looking. We had all of these vacant lots. People were dumping trash and fixing cars on them," said Eugene Franklin, president of the Washington Park Neighborhood Preservation and Enhancement District. "We decided it's time to take our neighborhood back," said Franklin, pointing to a new bridge crossing the northwest fork of the New River.

Two years ago, the Washington Park Neighborhood Council approved its preservation and enhancement district, invoking strict development and neighborhood codes, many of them aesthetically driven. No chain fences in front yards. No asphalt driveways. Every new home has to have a carport or garage. And more recently, they voted that those new homes cannot be smaller than 1,400 square feet.

Washington Park rests in the east-central part of unincorporated Broward County. It's bordered on the north by Sunrise Boulevard and Roosevelt Gardens; on the east by Northwest 27th Avenue and the Franklin Park community; on the south by Northwest Sixth Street and Boulevard Gardens; and on the west by Northwest 31st Avenue and the St. George Community.

Until recently, the area was made up of roughly 470 single family homes built in the 1950s and 1960s. About 15 percent of those homes were vacant and eyesores, much of them breeding grounds for vagrants until a few years ago. Renters occupied more than a third of the homes.

Now the community tells a different story.

Just to purchase one of the few remaining lots can costs roughly $16,000, nearly three times the price five years ago. And apartment complexes and rooming houses are becoming obsolete.

"In the last few years over 100 homes have been built and several are under construction. It's a very active development," said Al Shamoun of the county's urban and development office.

"Many of the older homes have been remodeled. There is a general improvement to the neighborhood. It's amazing to ride through and see the change from five years ago," he said. After the infrastructure improvement went in, people started to develop and fix up the homes, Shamoun said. "Things just turned around. Those in the neighborhood wanted single family housing, and it's working," he said.

Prices of new homes can range from the affordable $85,000 to $170,000. And nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity and the Urban League are building on vacant lots, while adhering to the guidelines.

"There were a number of properties in the unincorporated area that had come back to the county because of tax liens. But nobody could buy because of the liens," said County Commissioner John Rodstrom. The county decided to write them off.

"We had to admit that we were never going to get paid. And then we awarded them to not-for-profits with the understanding that they would build single-family homes within a three-year time frame," said Rodstrom.

Traveling down Sunrise Boulevard, it's not hard to miss the shiny new homes on the south side of the street.

Oladimeji, whose husband had to convince her to move into the community three years ago, never liked walking down the street before.

"But that's changed," she said.

Toni Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2004. Email story
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