The Bristol Township School District has once again submitted plans to the Bristol Township Zoning Board to build a new 140,000-square-foot school at the current site of Mary Devine Elementary School in Croydon.
The news came after a question from a resident at the Bristol Township School Board meeting Monday night. Aside from submitting revised plans, an appeal for the denial of the previous Devine site plans has been filed, officials said.
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David Schrader of Schrader Group Architecture told LevittownNow.com that the plans have been changed to reduce impervious surface and to parts of bus loops, paved walkways and a parking lot that partially sat in an area designated by the federal government as a floodplain. Schrader said the long drive that runs through the floodplain to River Road remains, but all other pavement in the floodplain, which takes up about 8 acres of the site, has been removed.
The zoning board showed concern over the amount of impervious space that was over the allowed 40 percent. They also raised concerns about the amount of construction in the floodplain.
The updated plans will come before the zoners on Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. District officials said they think the newer plans have a better chance on winning approval. If approved, the plans would still have to pass through the county and get the final go-ahead from the township.
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In July, the zoning board shot down plans for the new school at the 22-acre site. During the same meeting, zoners approved several variances for James Buchanan Elementary School on Haines Road and Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School on Mill Creek Road in Levittown.
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District officials brought backup plans to turn the Lafayette Elementary School into the site of a new building after Devine was turned down. In August, the zoners shot those plans down. School Board President Angela Nober said at the time the district presented the “least invasive plan.”
The district’s goal from the beginning has been to build at the Mary Devine site so the lower section of Bristol Township has an elementary school. If the Devine site is not usable, Croydon will be left without a school.
The new school is part of the estimated $152.6 million district-wide facilities overhaul would close nine elementary schools and have three 1,300-students buildings constructed in their place. Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School would close, while Neil A. Armstrong Middle School and the former Benjamin Franklin School, currently home to the district administrative staff, would be renovated for middle school 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.
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