Tell me about Davie, FL... (Sunrise, Plantation: city hall, crime, how much)

[Bjoo]

I am looking at a home in Davie, FL specifically East of I-75 and north of 818. Is this a good area for a young family? I am new to Florida, so any information on this city would be helpful! Is there a downtown area, are schools good (private/public), are there parks or recreational areas around, is it safe, etc. Tell me everything

Thank you in advance!!

[ruski]

Imagination Farms?

It is a good development, I have some coworkers that live there. They are pretty happy there and with their schools (but their kids are still young)

There is a very nice park - Vista View. However it is built on the former trash mountain. Supposedly it was just construction trash (not garbage) that used to be dumped there.

Another very nice park nearby is Tree Tops.

And also you are short distance away from the CB Smith park.

[Bjoo]

Specifically, the development in Davie that I am referring to is called "Grove Creek". Is this a nice area? Tell me about what's around here? Is the airplane noise bad here? Etc...

[ruski]

Grove Creek is an upscale community in a nice part of Davie with easy access to all kinds of points of interest.

It looks like it is zoned for Western High School.

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Middle School is Indian Ridge.
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Also according to the below, it is zoned for Country Isles Elementary in Weston:
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I can ask my coworker tomorrow where her kids go... She lives in Imagination Farms, right next to Grove Creek. I remember her telling me something along the lines that she could have sent her kids to Country Isles, but she was able to send them somewhere a little closer. Probably Griffin Elementary.

You can check the school ratings on Great Schools
GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community

[wizrap]

I would think that Grove Creek would be a nice area for a young family; there are many beautiful developments in that section of Broward County and many of the lots are on the largish-size -- around a half of an acre of so.

Davie portrays itself as a "western" style town and much of the architecture of the main drag reflects that image -- there is a downtown area along Davie Road between I-75 and Orange where the city hall, rodeo and a branch of the community college are located. However, I would not consider it a major downtown (ie, skyscrapers, high rises, etc. -- that it is not!)

The town and its parks have horse trails and it's not unusual to see riders on the trails in Davie's parks. On the weekends in Tree Tops Park, which is off of Nob Hill, so it's close to Grove Creek, you can also get riding lessons (my husband and I did that and had a lot of fun being guided through the back paths of the park).

The nature is beautiful throughout Broward County and West Broward is no exception. Lots of birding -- and the Everglades is right next door and you can go on an airboat tour of the 'Glades (did that too, during a drought, but it was still a lot of fun). So even though you're not on the beach, there is still a lot of stuff to do.

I would also think Grove Creek would be a safe area -- crime is generally low(er) in West Broward but you still have to make sure you don't leave valuables in plain sight -- which is true in any area.

As far as airplane noise, I don't think it would be too bad in Grove Creek -- but it is in the general area of the airport's flight path. We live close to I-75 in Weston and from time to time I can hear a jet. About a decade ago, when my husband and I were looking for a home, we looked in one area that was closer to the flight path and stood in the middle of the nearby park and heard plane after plane after plane. It was a deal breaker for us. You might want to see what it sounds like during the day, during a weekend, and see how much noise you hear.

I also don't think you can go wrong with the Davie schools; there are also a couple of very nice private schools that are pretty close -- one is American Heritage in Plantation and another is St. Bonaventure (grades K - 8).

[ruski]

I wouldn't worry about airplane noise in this area.

When jets take off from FLL heading West, they gain altitude and turn away way before they reach West Davie. I have never even seen a jet still taking off over West Davie.
(However I have noticed quite a bit of noise from jets taking off over East Davie and East Plantation).

As for landing jets, yes, you see a bunch of them making final approach turn over Weston and West Davie, and you can hear them, but they are still quite high, so the noise is not very significant. I actually find it pleasant.

Once a day, toward the evening a Fedex DC-10 jumbo comes in for landing - this one is a little bit louder than the rest, and even then it is not bad at all.

I have never heard anyone in this area complain about airplane noise either.

Going East from University Blvd, the noise becomes more prominent.

[JacobMAX]

Great place overall (especially in the area the OP cited). I am actually myself thinking seriously of moving there (the west bits of Davie).

[transitfan]

Re: the planes, I've flown into FLL several times since I've lived here. For flights coming from further north on the east coast, they fly just off the coast, then turn in somewhere north of Sunrise Blvd, fly west to about the Sawgrass Expressway (sometimes they go out to US 27, and one jetBlue flight I was on, I swear they sent us out halfway to Naples before we turned back!), then turn east and line up for the runway (9 North), between I-595 and Griffin Road (you can get some pretty good pics of planes along Griffin Road!). Planes coming from further west take a different pattern, but from the Sawgrass on, all of them are pretty much lined up between 595 and Griffin. In a few years, the second runway (9 south) will be active at FLL, so that would require a different patterm further south (maybe just south of Griffin). Also, it seems that some Spirit Airlines flights come in from the south, I've had a few fly over my house (I'm a few blocks south of Pines Blvd near I-75), and those turn in around SW 172 Av or 184 Av and join the pattern. Dunno why Spirit gets special attention, it's true they have their main hub at FLL, but still...I thought maybe they were flights coming in from the Carribean, but one night after 3 planes passed over within 5 minutes, I looked on Flightaware, one flight was from Baltimore, the other from LaGuardia, and the third from somewhere else on the east coast, so they were flying past the airport, over the Atlantic, and then turning in and doubling back to FLL. Weird.

[ruski]

Most flights line up along SW 36th street, that's between Griffin and I-595.
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=griff...,0.045447&z=15

Most of them are still quite high over West Davie, plus they are gliding down on low power, so the sound is quite low.

[greenpeas]

My kids go to Western High School, it's not as new as CBHS, but not as crowded either, my 16 yr old did so well, she now goes to C/A at the college and not high school, my other daughter is a "A" student there. American Heritage is really
great IF you got $$$ to send them there. Good Luck. P.S. LOVE LOVE Vista View Park