2 School Plans Approved, 1 Denied by Zoning Board

The Bristol Township School District won two out of three at Monday night’s zoning meeting.

The Bristol Township Zoning Board approved several variances for James Buchanan Elementary School on Haines Road and Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School on Mill Creek Road in Levittown. The zoners denied the application for Mary Devine Elementary School in Croydon.

The zoning board denied the school district’s application for the Devine site because the plan uses part of the 22-acre site’s designated floodplain, which is just over 8 acres. The new nearly 140,000-square-foot building would not be built in the floodplain, but a bus driveway and part of a parking lot are in the floodplain.

Floodplains are designated using data from the federal government.

“We always knew that Devine would be the most challenging,” Superintendent Dr. Samuel Lee said. He added that he was a “bit surprised” the Devine application was denied.

The high water table and the floodplain has been a concern of project officials since the beginning. Lee said they tried to work around the issues.

The zoning board approved the other two applications from the Levittown schools with little hesitation.

Variances for the remaining buildings included building height, set backs, impervious surface, loading space, buffers and signage.

Project solicitor Tim Duffy and other members of the project team testified to the zoning board.

Click here to see renderings of what the new schools would look like

Residents spoke at the more roughly two-hour-long hearing held at the township building on Bath Road.

Fairless Hills resident Brian Lachewitz  raised concerns about the plans that were presented at the zoning meeting.

“I’m a bit shocked and flabbergasted right now,” Lachewitz said as he went to the podium to speak.

He raised concerns that the plans shown at the meeting were different from ones he saw recently, and he raised the the alarm on water issues at Devine. He also asked if the fact that Lee used a stamp to sign the application still made it applicable.

The board later ruled that the stamp with Lee’s signature was OK after Lee testified that he gave approval.

John Riottio of Croydon raised concerns about the plan to have district buses use River Road to pick-up students from the new school at the Devine site.

“Hell, I don’t travel [River Road] in the winter time or summer time,” he said, citing the conditions of the roadway and flooding issues.

Riottio asked the board to vote on the plans with a “common sense attitude.”

Tony Bolger, a resident of the Green Lynn section in Levittown, spoke to concerns about having multiple schools on Mill Creek Road and the traffic that would bring.

“I can’t get out of my community now,” he said. “How about when these schools are getting out?” he questioned.

Duffy told Bolger and other residents who raised concerns about traffic that those issues would be handled at another point in the land development process for the $152 million project.

Two residents spoke in support of the plans.

“There may need to be some lead way given when it comes to the education of our children – so be it,” Levittown resident Jessica Shaw said.

Kenneth Wortington of Edgely also voiced support for the project. He said the new schools are necessary to attract new residents and business to the Bristol Township.

The three new schools are each designed to house 1,300 students and would be divided into two sections. Kindergarten through second grade in part of the building and third through fifth grade in the other section of the facility.

The facilities overhaul would close Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School; Neil A. Armstrong Middle School and the former Benjamin Franklin School, currently home to the district administrative staff, would be renovated for students. Harry S. Truman High School would not see any major work done. Clara Barton Elementary School would be re-purposed into the administration and maintenance building.

Related:

• Croydon Students Will Likely Be Displaced
• Bristol Twp. Schools Plan to Come Before Township Monday
• Tax Hike, Jobs Cuts Part of Approved BTSD Budget
• BTSD Budget: Some Cuts Off Table; Proposed Tax Increase, Layoffs Remain
• Search for Bus Depot Continues in Bristol Twp.
• Security of High Concern at New Schools Meeting
• Proposed Bristol Township School Renderings Released