The defunct Country Club Estates Homeowners Association is regrouping and will meet for the first time in more than two years at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Community Center, 5555 Palm Tree Rd. Organizing a crime-fighting group tops the list of priorities.
"We have to take responsibility in our own community and get involved," said Charles Webster, a Plantation Country Club Estates resident. "We have to get ourselves going again. People are moving in and out and things change."
The East Plantation neighborhood of 860 homes borders U.S. 441, Florida's Turnpike, Peters Road and Broward Boulevard. In the past year, residents say crime in their neighborhood has worsened.
"We need to be more visible and more aware and get the council to be more aware of our problems," said Bob Levy, a Plantation Country Club Estates resident and member of the city's planning board.
The homeowners' group once was one of the city's most active. It lobbied to build a wall between the homes and businesses along U.S. 441. and close city streets. It also petitioned the city to build a jogging path.
When the projects were completed in 1991 and 1992, the group dissolved. Watching the western neighborhoods continue to prosper, residents in the East Plantation neighborhood say they wonder why theirs hasn't.
"This is part of what we believe is a continuing trend of being the forgotten children of the city," said Levy, city manager of Wilton Manors.
He cited two examples: permitting more fast-food restaurants on U.S. 441 than on University Drive to the west and declining quality of the city's holiday decorations east of U.S. 441.
"You mean to tell me there's not a separate standard?" he said.
The resurgence of community interest also is being felt along U.S. 441. The Association for U.S. 441 Business Community wants to help the community in its efforts. "We want to pull everyone together. More importantly, the homeowners on the east and west side of 441," said Charles Cannon, a member of the ABC board of directors.
The newly formed business group aims to accelerate the city's plans to redevelop U.S. 441 and change the image of East Plantation from a dying neighborhood to a thriving one. ABC proposes to hire an economic development director who would lead the effort.