Broward County (FL)

Broward County, Florida
County
Broward County
The Broward County Courthouse
Logo
Location in the U.S. state of Florida
Florida's location in the U.S.
Founded	April 30, 1915
Named for	Napoleon Bonaparte Broward
Government • Mayor	Barbara Sharief
Seat	Fort Lauderdale
Largest city	Fort Lauderdale
Area
• Total	1,323 sq mi (3,427 km2)
• Land	1,210 sq mi (3,134 km2)
• Water	113 sq mi (293 km2), 8.5%
Population (est.)
• (2016)	1,909,632
• Density	1,445/sq mi (558/km2)
Congressional districts	20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th
Time zone	Eastern: UTC−5/−4
Website	www.broward.org

Broward County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2016, the population was 1,909,632, making it the second-most populous county in Florida and the 17th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Lauderdale. Broward County is part of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census.

Although the area has been settled since about 1400 B.C., Broward County was founded on April 30, 1915. It was originally intended to be named Everglades County, but then-Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Ion Farris amended the bill that established the county to be named in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Governor of Florida from 1905 to 1909. Throughout his term as Governor, Broward championed Everglades drainage and was later remembered for his campaign to turn the Everglades into “useful land”. This opened up much of today's urban Broward County for development, first as agricultural land and later as residential. A year before Broward became Governor, Dania became the first incorporated community of what is now Broward County, followed by Pompano during his term in 1908, and Fort Lauderdale in 1911 shortly after his term had ended.

In 1915, Palm Beach County and Dade County contributed nearly equal portions of land to create Broward County. Broward County began a huge development boom after its incorporation, with the first "tourist hotel", in Fort Lauderdale, opening in 1919. A year later, developers began dredging wetlands in the county in order to create island communities. By 1925, the boom was considered to have reached its peak, but a 1926 hurricane caused economic depression in the county. The County saw another population and development boom post-World War II where the transformation from agricultural to urbanized residential area began, and another boom between the 1950's and the late 1960's. The effects of a national recession hit the county in 1974 and the population growth finally slowed. The structure of county government was signed into law in 1975 with the passage of the Broward County charter. In 1977 a Land Use Plan was passed and was a major step in limiting urban sprawl.