Tamarac, Florida

Monochromatic depiction of the city's first official seal, used from 1963 to 1991.

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.[6]

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.[7]

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.[8] City officials had once considered revising their east city limit lines to ensure efficient delivery of government services.[9]

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

Tamarac is located at 26°12′13″N 80°14′47″W (26.203581, –80.246376).[10] 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%).[11]

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 Saint Malachy School in Tamarac.[37]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tamarac, Florida.

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