Tamarac, Florida

Tamarac, Florida
City
City of Tamarac
Flag Seal Logo
Motto(s):  "The City For Your Life!"[1]
Location of Tamarac, Broward County, Florida
Coordinates: 26°12′45″N 80°15′00″W / 26.21250°N 80.25000°W / 26.21250; -80.25000Coordinates: 26°12′45″N 80°15′00″W / 26.21250°N 80.25000°W / 26.21250; -80.25000
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Broward
Incorporated	August 15, 1963[4]
Government
• Type	Commission-Manager
• Mayor	Michelle J. Gomez
• Vice Mayor	Elvin Villalobos[2]
• Commissioners	Debra Placko, Marlon D. Bolton, and Mike Gelin [3]
• City Manager	Kathleen Gunn
• City Clerk	Patricia Teufel
Area [5]
• City	12.15 sq mi (31.48 km2)
• Land	11.66 sq mi (30.21 km2)
• Water	0.49 sq mi (1.27 km2)
Elevation	9 ft (3 m)
Population  (2010)
• City	60,427
• Estimate  (2019)[8]	66,721
• Density	5,720.25/sq mi (2,208.55/km2)
• Metro	5,564,635
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	33309, 33319, 33320, 33321, 33351, 33359
Area code(s)	954, 754
FIPS code	12-70675[6]
GNIS feature ID	0300337[7]
Website	www.tamarac.org

Tamarac is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 60,427.^[9] It is part of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people in 2015.

History[]

In the early 1960s a young developer named Ken Behring came from the Midwest and bought land where he could, creating an active adult community of two-bedroom maintenance-free homes. He called his new city Tamarac, named after the nearby Tamarac Country Club in Oakland Park.^[10]

In 1963, Behring built and Jesse Pilch sold the city's first development east of State Road 7, Tamarac Lakes Section One and Section Two. Next came two neighborhoods of homes built on a former orange grove called Tamarac Lakes North and Tamarac Lakes Boulevard. Four of Behring's last developments were Tamarac Lakes South, then the Mainlands of Tamarac Lakes just west of State Road 7, and finally the Woodlands community.^[11]

The city's early leaders, hoping to preserve Tamarac as a bedroom community, allowed Fort Lauderdale to annex commercial pockets, forever losing land that might have bolstered the city's coffers. In the late 1970s, the city de-annexed a long line of commercial buildings from State Road 7 all the way to Northwest 31 Avenue, but it went along with Behring's vision of Tamarac as a bedroom community. The boundaries were wherever Behring decided to build homes. The city's current eastern boundaries narrow to a sliver from Northwest 31 to 37 Avenues, then widen to the south. The city's easternmost boundary extends below Commercial Boulevard to Northwest 16 Avenue.^[12] City officials had once considered revising their east city limit lines to ensure efficient delivery of government services.^[13]

Behring also named a subdivision he founded in the Pinellas Park area, the "Mainlands of Tamarac By-the-Gulf".

Geography[]

Tamarac is located at

26°12′13″N 80°14′47″W / 26.20361°N 80.24639°W / 26.20361; -80.24639 (26.203581, -80.246376).^[14] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.1 square miles (31.3 km²), of which 11.6 square miles (30.1 km²) is land and 0.46 square miles (1.2 km²) is water (3.92%).^[9]

Demographics[]

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1970	5,193		—
1980	29,376		465.7%
1990	44,822		52.6%
2000	55,588		24.0%
2010	60,427		8.7%
2019 (est.)	66,721	[8]	10.4%
U.S. Decennial Census[15]

Tamarac Demographics
2010 Census	Tamarac	Broward County	Florida
Total population	60,427	1,748,066	18,801,310
Population, percent change, 2000 to 2010	+8.7%	+7.7%	+17.6%
Population density	5,201.4/sq mi	1,444.9/sq mi	350.6/sq mi
White or Caucasian (including White Hispanic)	67.2%	63.1%	75.0%
(Non-Hispanic White or Caucasian)	49.0%	43.5%	57.9%
Black or African-American	23.1%	26.7%	16.0%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race)	24.3%	25.1%	22.5%
Asian	2.5%	3.2%	2.4%
Native American or Native Alaskan	0.2%	0.3%	0.4%
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
Two or more races (Multiracial)	2.8%	2.9%	2.5%
Some Other Race	4.2%	3.7%	3.6%

As of 2010, there were 32,794 households, with 13.4% being vacant. In 2000, 15.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.8% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.6% were non-families. 36.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 23.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00 and the average family size was 2.56.

In 2000, the city the population was spread out, with 13.4% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 20.1% from 45 to 64, and 37.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 53 years. For every 100 females, there were 80.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.3 males.

In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $34,290, and the median income for a family was $41,927. Males had a median income of $32,317 versus $28,360 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,243. About 6.1% of families and 8.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.5% of those under age 18 and 7.2% of those age 65 or over.

As of 2000, speakers of English language as a first language were at 78.08% of the population, while Spanish was at 13.69%. Also, Yiddish was at 1.90%, French at 1.15%, Haitian Creole consisted of 1.12%, Italian made up 1.08%, German comprised 0.62%, and Hebrew as a mother tongue made up 0.52% of residents.^[16]

Over the years, the multicultural population has expanded in Tamarac, such as people from Latin American and Caribbean ancestry. As of 2000, Tamarac was the fifty-first-most Colombian-populated area in the U.S., with 2.74% of the population.^[17] It also had the thirty-second-highest percentage of Jamaicans in the U.S., (tied with Royal Palm Beach and Goulds) at 4.1% of all residents.^[18]

Education[]

Broward County Public Schools operates public schools.^[19]

Elementary schools in the Tamarac city limits include:

• Challenger Elementary School^[20]
• Tamarac Elementary School^[21]

Other elementary schools serving sections of Tamarac include Discovery (Sunrise),^[22] Pinewood (North Lauderdale),^[23] Park Lakes (Lauderdale Lakes),^[24] Oriole (Lauderdale Lakes),^[25] and Lloyd Estates (Oakland Park).^[26]

Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy is the sole public secondary school in Tamarac; it was previously only a middle school, but its high school began operations in 2017.^[27] Tamarac has a middle school attendance zone serving the majority of the city (sections of the city limits west of NW 81 Avenue). High school students are not zoned to Tamarac; preference is given to those who attended Millennium middle, and those wishing to attend the high school must be eligible for dual-enrollment with Broward College.^[28] Other sections are served by Silver Lakes Middle in North Lauderdale,^[29] Lauderdale Lakes Middle in Lauderdale Lakes.^[30] and Rickards Middle in Oakland Park.^[31]

Much of Tamarac is zoned to J. P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs,^[32] and Piper High School in Sunrise,^[33] with Taravella serving northern areas and Piper serving southern areas.^[34] Other sections are assigned to Boyd H. Anderson High School in Lauderdale Lakes and Northeast High School in Oakland Park.^[35][36]

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami previously operated the Saint Malachy School in Tamarac.^[37]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tamarac, Florida.

• Official website
• Tamarac, Florida at City-Data.com
• Tamarac Historical Society