Pompano Beach residents invited to help shape the future of the new E. Pat Larkins Community Center

Pompano Beach, Florida – Pompano Beach residents still have an opportunity to play a direct role in shaping the future of the E. Pat Larkins Community Center as the city continues planning a new facility as part of its New Downtown project.

The City of Pompano Beach and the Community Redevelopment Agency are hosting a series of Community Engagement Sessions designed to gather ideas from residents about what they want to see in the new center. The meetings give community members a place to share personal stories, discuss the neighborhood’s history and suggest rooms, features and amenities for the future facility.

The next session, Shape the Space: Rooms, Features, and Amenities, will take place Wednesday, Oct. 14, beginning at 6 p.m. at the existing E. Pat Larkins Community Center.

Organizers are inviting residents to bring their ideas about how the new center should be designed and what it should offer. The discussion will focus on the spaces, services and amenities that could help the facility meet the needs of the community for years to come.

The October gathering follows a September session that focused heavily on local history and the people who helped shape Pompano Beach.

Residents shared memories of E. Pat Larkins, who became Pompano Beach’s first Black mayor, as well as stories about other community pioneers. People of different ages participated in the discussion, providing personal memories and talking about important people and moments connected to the neighborhood.

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Those conversations are intended to help planners incorporate the community’s history into the new facility. The goal is for the future center to honor Larkins’ legacy while serving new generations of Pompano Beach residents.

The September event also gave neighbors an opportunity to connect with one another while enjoying light bites provided by local vendors.

That community-focused format will continue during the Oct. 14 meeting. Residents will be able to speak with neighbors and participate in discussions about the center while enjoying free light bites from Pompano Beach restaurants.

The engagement process is not limited to the two meetings.

The city and CRA have planned a seven-part series of sessions that will continue through February. Each gathering will focus on a different aspect of the future community center, allowing residents to provide input at several stages of the planning process rather than during a single meeting.

Architects working on the project are leading the conversations. STUDIO-US and METICULOUS Design Architecture have been selected for the new center and are participating in the community sessions as ideas for the project are developed.

The meetings are designed to make community input a central part of that process. By hearing directly from residents, planners can learn which spaces and features are most important to the people expected to use the facility.

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The upcoming Shape the Space session will give residents a particularly practical opportunity to influence those plans. Participants can suggest the types of rooms the building should contain, features they believe would improve the center and amenities that could make it useful to a wide range of residents.

At the same time, the broader engagement series will continue exploring how the facility can preserve the history and identity of the surrounding community.

All sessions are free to attend and run from 6 to 8 p.m. at the E. Pat Larkins Community Center, located at 520 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Pompano Beach.

The series will continue through February, giving residents additional opportunities to participate as planning for the new center moves forward.