Country Club residents say they are on the front lines of a changing neighborhood, a buffer between U.S. 441 and western Plantation. In the past six months, the noise and people from the nightclubs and restaurants on U.S. 441 have moved in.
"We are concerned. We are vigilant. We are aware," said Bob Levy, a resident of the East Plantation neighborhood before the Plantation City Council meeting Wednesday. "(But) we are living in a state of crisis."
About 15 residents of the neighborhood east of Florida's
Turnpike between Broward Boulevard and Peters Road asked the City Council to
help them fight crime and outsiders from creeping into their neighborhood,
especially at night.
"You have to change the situation now," said resident E.J. Generotti.
Generotti and his neighbors want more police patrols, a park for their kids, landscaped entryways and attention from City Hall. They say they feel left out as the city builds new parks and improves roads out west.
"We are putting more police on the street," said council member Larry Freilich. "We are not going to forget you."
The city has a plan to redesign the city's eastern corridor along U.S. 441, called the Gateway 7 Redevelopment District.
The corridor is largely a commercial strip with car dealerships and strip shopping centers. Plantation plans to landscape U.S. 441, put in decorative street lights and build a parallel road for customers of these businesses.
Taxes are collected annually from businesses along the road to pay for improvements. The first step -- to build a wall between the businesses on the west side of the street and Plantation Country Club Estates -- is done.
But thousands of dollars still haven't been spent. The reconstruction of U.S. 441 from four lanes to six will delay the city's plans until 1997, when the state begins the road work.