‘Hear our cry’

Residents rally to block new center with morgue in Fort Lauderdale

Some longtime Fort Lauderdale residents are pushing back against plans for a new government center with a morgue in their community, prompting Broward County to search for a new location miles away in the downtown.

The Broward County Forensic Science Center — a $210.5 million multi-story facility — would’ve been built on county-owned land at 1625 NW 23rd Ave., less than a mile north of Dillard High west of I-95, fronting homes on two sides. But residents of the predominantly Black neighborhood said they felt blindsided by the plans, arguing they don’t want the leftovers that no other community would want. They don’t want “dead bodies” in their community, resident Marsha Ellison argued.

“If it’s so great ... build it in your neighborhood,” she said.

“We are not a dump zone,” added resident Krystal Jordan.

The plan, in the works since 2016, calls for a 177,000-square-foot project that could house a Fort Lauderdale police substation, and a new Sheriff ’s Office crime laboratory, which is now housed at the courthouse. The bulk of the controversy is it would also house a new Medical Examiner’s Office, which is now in a residential area in Dania Beach. County officials said there’s no room to expand, and has outgrown its location.

More than 200 people would work there when it opens. Construction has been scheduled to begin in April 2023.

The land was purchased by the county in 2017 from the School Board, about 8 acres that was an empty field for almost $3.2 million. Including the land purchase, more than $6.4 million has already been spent so far on engineering, design and architecture

plans and consultants.

County staff argued nobody living there would see anything improper. They argued it was near a technical college and students could have internships. But it has drawn a public outcry.

“I want the same thing you want ... in your neighborhood,” Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Robert McKinzie told Broward’s mayor. “I want a steak, I want a Mercedes, I want nice clothing, I want safe schools — I want the same thing you all want.”

“I drive a Chrysler,” Broward Mayor Steve Geller corrected him.

But people in the community said they were disturbed that the bodies going in and out of the morgue only degrade the community.

“I grew up 50 feet from a cemetery and as a little kid my biggest fear were the dead bodies,” McKinzie said, saying there was an elementary school too close to the site. “None of you live within a mile of this.”

State Rep. Bobby B. DuBose considered it a bad plan for the community. “Be sensitive. Hear our cry.”

“Typically when we want to sell something in the Black community that the Black community doesn’t want we wrap it in job opportunities,” DuBose said. “I’m not buying it.”

Among those supporting the existing plan are Sheriff Greg Tony and County Administrator Bertha Henry, two of Broward’s highest-ranking officials, both of whom are Black. Although he said he has now changed positions, residents blasted district Commissioner Dale Holness, who is Black, for not opposing it before now.

“Had I thought this was the response, I wouldn’t have supported it,” Holness insisted.

Others argued the project was misunderstood.

“I wouldn’t put my name on anything that would bring harm to this community,” Tony said. “Fort Lauderdale is home to me.”

“We looked around and this is the site that was available,” Henry said.

Henry said Thursday her staff was now hunting for a new location. Her hope is the former land could be flipped: “We would have to sell it to pay for the next piece of property — if I’m able to find it — to build it in another location.”

But it will have to reasonably close to downtown Fort Lauderdale because investigators need easy access to the courthouse to come for testimony.

Henry doesn’t want the word “morgue” to describe the project when autopsies is only a fraction of the use, and said residents were “frightened” with misinformation about the intent.

Like Tony, she said this plan is intended to benefit the community, and not bring any setback.

“I can just speak the truth. This community needs economic development. We’re looking for ways to create opportunity and that’s what I saw. This was envisioned to be one of the premier facilities in the country. We wanted the best premier facility in the Black community, I was not looking to put something harmful in the community.”