Sea Ranch Lakes, Florida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sea Ranch Lakes is a village in Broward County, Florida, United States. The village was named for the Sea Ranch Hotel. The population was 1,392 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 761 [1].
Sea Ranch Lakes is located on Highway A1A, in between Lauderdale by the Sea and Pompano Beach. The majority of Sea Ranch Lakes is a walled-in residential community, with the remainder of the village being a public shopping plaza, and private beach club for residents of the village.
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[edit] Geography
Sea Ranch Lakes is located at (26.200711, -80.096839).GR1
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.6 km² (0.2 mi²). 0.5 km² (0.2 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (18.18%) is water.
[edit] Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 1,392 people, 696 households, and 421 families residing in the village. The population density was 2,985.9/km² (7,689.5/mi²). There were 1,339 housing units at an average density of 2,872.2/km² (7,396.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 97.84% White, 0.93% African American, 0.65% Asian, and 0.57% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.90% of the population.
There were 696 households out of which 14.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.3% were married couples living together, 3.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.5% were non-families. 34.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 19.3% 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 the village the population was spread out with 14.5% under the age of 18, 2.1% from 18 to 24, 14.7% from 25 to 44, 32.5% from 45 to 64, and 36.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 57 years. For every 100 females there were 83.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.8 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $62,813, and the median income for a family was $85,729. Males had a median income of $62,765 versus $42,500 for females. The per capita income for the village was $60,088. About 6.7% of families and 7.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.8% of those under age 18 and 3.2% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Government
Sea Ranch Lakes has a Mayor/Council form of government with 7 village council members, and one mayor. All elected officials serve two-year terms. The village was incorporated on October 6, 1959 because residents in the original gated community feared they would eventually be forcibly annexed by Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, or Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. By incorporating themselves as municipality within Broward County, they would be able to remain autonomous for as long as they so desired. The village is unique in that it owns no property within its municipal borders. All roads, streets, parks, and lakes are private property owned by the Sea Ranch Beach Club. Because all property in the village is private land, the Sea Ranch Lakes Police Department is legally allowed to deny access to residential area of the village to non-residents through the use of the village's main gate on Gatehouse Rd at A1A.
The Sea Ranch Beach club owns all property within the village, including the oceanfront property on which the actual beach clubhouse and pool are built. The Beach club also has members which are elected to severs on its board of directors, and are responsible for maintaining all of the Beach Club's property such as roads, street lights, and street signs. All major issues that affect the Beach Club must be voted upon by its members, and all residents of the Village of Sea Ranch Lakes are allotted one vote for each parcel of property he or she owns. There are annual membership dues to the Sea Ranch Lakes Beach Club that all residents must pay, in addition to their annual property taxes. These membership dues to the Beach Club are used for capital improvements such as street repaving, painting of the Beach Club, and salaries of the Beach Club employees that manage the Beach Club, and maintain it's property.
[edit] Public Services
[edit] Police
Law Enforcement services to the village are provided by the Sea Ranch Lakes Police Department who patrol the walled in residential section of the village, the oceanfront beach club, and the shopping plaza which fall within the village's municipal boundaries. The Department has approximately 30 State of Florida certified sworn law enforcement officers. The Department is lead by Chief Peter Gregory, who joined the department after retiring from the City of New York Police Department. Many of the police officers are also retired employees of the NYPD, and several are former employees of local law enforcement agencies. The department is dispatched by Broward County Sheriff's Office communications, and responds as District 26. The Department has 3 patrol vehicles, and a minimum of two sworn officers on duty at all times, with a normal week day staffing of two officers, one police service aide, and the police chief. The department prides itself on its low crime rate, with fewer than 15 Uniform Crime Report Type I crimes per year, with the majority being burglaries and robberies to businesses and vehicles inside the Sea Ranch Lakes business plaza. In addition, the Police Department was one of the first in Broward County to have developed a formal hurricane emergency policy in the early 1980s.
The Sea Ranch Lakes Police Department employs detectives within its ranks, who are responsible for conducting most criminal investigations, however whenever a major felony occurs in the village such as a homicide or other criminal case that may involve other jurisdictions, the Broward Sheriff's Office is called in for assistance to pursue a joint investigation with a team approach.
The Department is also known for it's small town efforts and assistance that is seldom found with other law enforcement agencies. The department provides keyholder services for residents, and also will assist with matters that are normally classified as non-law enforcement such as escaped animals, resident check-ups, and other service type calls. In addition, Patrolman Gene McCoy was credited with rescuing a resident during a structure fire in the village during the 1980s. The police officer was the first emergency services worker on scene of the fire, and pulled an elderly resident from the building before the fire department arrived, and is credited with saving the resident's life. The Department was also the first to arrive and provide assistance to a helicopter which crashed on the property of the Sea Ranch Beach Club, and also has assisted the United States Border Patrol and the Broward Sheriff's Office with detaining and pursuing illegal immigrants that have come ashore into the village, and also provide emergency police back-up to neighboring Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. These are just some of the examples of the many extra efforts that the police officers have performed throughout the history of the department.
Tragically, the Sea Ranch Lakes Police Department experienced one line-of-duty death when Patrolman Henry Adams died on November 28, 1975
[edit] Fire & EMS
Fire and Emergency Medical Services to the Village of Sea Ranch Lakes are provided by the Broward County Sheriff's Office from Station 12, and Station 36 under contract. The village averages fewer than 100 calls for fire or EMS services each year, with many being for services to the shopping plaza, or for residential fire alarms in the village. The village averages less than one working structure fire per year, with the most recent occurring in a business inside the shopping plaza.
Throughout the history of the village, fire services have consitently varied with each contract. Broward County Fire Rescue, the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Volunteer Fire Department, and Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue all providing fire suppression services to the village at some point throughout its history. The lowest bidder for fire services is usually awarded the four year contract for services to the village. Prior to 1996, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea Volunteer Fire Department served the town, with Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue serving until 2001, with Broward Sheriff's Office Department of Fire Rescue & Emergency services providing fire suppression services to the town since 2001.
[edit] Utilities
Water services are provided to the town by the City of Fort Lauderdale water department. The residential section of the village has no sewer system, with each resident having an individual septic system. However, the shopping plaza is connected to the sewer system used by Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
Power services are provided to the town by Florida Power & Light, with all residential power lines being buried underground. By having no utility poles inside the village for power, cable, or telephone, it is relatively simple to return power to the entire village following a storm. In addition, no overhead wires is also aesthetically pleasing to the residents.
[edit] Public Works
The employees of the Sea Ranch Lakes Beach Club are responsible for maintaining all of the villages lakes, parks, streets, and other property since the Beach Club owns all property within the village.
[edit] External links
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
