CORAL SPRINGS — The city’s showcase festival, Our Town, is returning to Mullins Park this year after three years at Coral Square mall.

The move will expand the annual, three-day event to the city’s $8 million community center, which is adjacent to the park.

According to festival organizers, the new location will benefit both Our Town and City Centre, scheduled to open in the fall.

“We have so many new things we’re unveiling, like the community center, for one thing,” said Connie Brillinger, executive director of the Coral Springs Chamber of Commerce.

The theme of this year’s Our Town is “On Stage.”

The festival will show off the products of Coral Springs’ rapid growth, such as City Centre and the renovations at Mullins Park. The City Centre will be used for Our Town’s art exhibits, sport events and musical performances.

The city plans to take a more active role in sponsoring the 12th annual festival, Oct. 19 to 21, with the city’s Chamber of Commerce, said festival organizer Matt Wiseley, a spokesman Coral Ridge properties.

Three years ago, the festival had been moved to the parking lot at Coral Square because of the construction on City Centre. The move also accommodated growing crowds, which reached 180,000 last year.

But residents prefer the atmosphere at Mullins Park rather than the mall parking lot, Brillinger said.

“We’re coming back to the hometown fair,” she said.

With Our Town returning to city property, the city can work more closely with the Chamber of Commerce in planning this year’s festival, organizers said. The festival raises money for charities and the chamber.

City Commissioner Jim Gordon said he is wary of the joint venture because the Chamber of Commerce still owes the city money from another co-sponsored event, a 1988 spring festival.

Wiseley, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, said the city helped pick up some unanticipated costs, such as extra police pay.

He said the 1988 overrun that reached about $7,000 came because of bad weather. Organizers also did not anticipate the costs accurately because it was the event’s first year, he said.

City Commissioner Bill Stradling, who resigned as the chamber’s chairman this month, said the spring festival overrun will not affect Our Town.

He said the chamber intends to repay the 1988 money.