The City of Hollywood is a mature and built-out community, where rapid population growth in the 1950's and 1960's has given way to a population that is stable in size but undergoing significant changes in its composition.

Since the early days of Hollywood, the city has looked to its Utilities for their essential services. Back then most of the area was undeveloped tracts of pine forests, palmetto plants, and tangled under growth interspersed with tomato farms and low lying marshland. With the formation of the Hollywood Land and Water Company in February 1921, the origins of our City, Joseph Young started Hollywood on the road towards creation, and the reality of his vision. During this period, construction was mainly along Hollywood Beach to an area about four miles inland. As can be seen in the name of Young's fledgling company, water was of prime importance to the development, and the first Hollywood Water Plant was constructed. This plant could only produce 500,000 gallons of drinking water per day, a small amount in comparison to the rated treatment capacity of 36 million gallons per day of the current plant.

With the creation of Hollywood, Inc. in the 1930's a slow but perceptible growth occurred in Hollywood, and the City began to move west into what is now the Hollywood Hills area. In 1935, a water softener system was added to the water plant to provide improved quality.

Major change came in the 1950's and 1960's. In 1954, Hollywood Boulevard was extended west to U.S. 27. This ignited more expansion to the west of the city. Hollywood's municipal boundaries continued to expand into some of these new areas of unincorporated Broward County. From a population of about 23 thousand in 1955, Hollywood grew to over 67 thousand by 1965. With this growth came the need for increased water supply.

About the same time, wastewater treatment became much more a public issue in Florida. Previously, the Gulf Stream that runs past the City of Hollywood with it's flow equivalent to over one thousand Mississippi River's, had long been considered a safe means of diffusing wastes and then be handled by nature. This was the approach originally taken when most of the coastal regions of Florida were first settled. Over time, health concerns along our beaches grew, and the need to better treat wastes became necessary.

Major utilities infrastructure building projects were undertaken, and by the early 60's the City had both a new water treatment plant and sewer treatment plant. In addition, a new water and sewer maintenance facility was constructed on Dixie Highway to provide a centralized service division to maintain the City's underground infrastructure. The City also purchased the holdings of the Western Water Company, that serviced portions of Driftwood and Boulevard Heights, the Welwyn Utility Company's infrastructure that serviced Beverly Park, and the Boulevard Heights portion of the Pembroke Utilities Company, as these areas were now a part of the City of Hollywood.

About this time another major change occurred for the Utilities. The EPA, in an attempt to regionalize services, designated the Hollywood Sewer Plant as the regional service provider for the southern Broward County area. With this came the name change to the "Southern Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant," and in 1973 there was an expansion of the facilities to support the regional services being provided to many of our surrounding communities. This is when the previous treatment method, trickling filters, was replaced by the current activated sludge system. While both of these methods are very capable of treating wastes, the capacity that a trickling filter system can handle is limited, and the City had outgrown this method. The EPA also wanted a buffer zone placed around the plant and the surrounding community, and if you have to make a buffer zone the public might as well be able to enjoy it. So, in addition to the new treatment method, the Eco Grande golf course was built.

In recent years, the Utilities Department has installed a Membrane Softening system at the Water Plant, provides reclaimed water for irrigation of our golf courses, taken over stormwater management in the City, and continues to provide quality wastewater treatment to our regional area. With the arrival of the new millennium we will continue these services while maintaining our primary goal, service to our customers.