Credit: Google Maps
The Bristol Township School District’s revamped plans for a new 1,300-students elementary school at the current site of Mary Devine Elementary School in Croydon will go before the Bristol Township Zoning Board Monday night.
Project officials have said the plans have been changed to reduce impervious surface. Parts of the bus loops, paved walkways and a parking lot that partially sat in an area designated by the federal government as a floodplain. They 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.
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The zoning board showed concern in July, when they turned down the plans the first time, 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 Monday at 7 p.m. at the township building on Bath Road. 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.
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.
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The new school is part of the district-wide facilities overhaul estimated to cost more than $153 million. The project 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.
Related:
- BTSD Gives Mary Devine Site Second Chance
- Lafayette Plans Shot Down by Zoners
- Lafayette School Plans To Go Before Zoners
- District Officials Present Lafayette Plan to Community
- Lafayette to Replace Devine as Site of New School
- 2 School Plans Approved, 1 Denied by Zoning Board
- Back to Drawing Board for Devine Site, Lafayette Still on Table
