Residents Come Out To Speak About Spring Valley Farm Property

Residents from across Middletown , Langhorne, Penndel and Hulmeville gathered at the Middletown Township municipal building on Wednesday night to discuss the fate of the acquired Spring Valley Farm property.

The property, which was purchased by Middletown three years ago this month as part of the Bucks County Municipal Open Space Program, is a 10-plus acre property at 800 Walnut Avenue, directly behind the Penndel Memorial baseball fields.

According to Middletown official, the 10 acres was originally part of a 500 acre parcel that dates back nearly 330 years and features sycamore trees that are hundreds year old, a bank barn, a bank house, a spring house, rolling lawns, woodlands, steep slopes and a creek.

While the township has long desired to make useful integration of the property to Middletown and Penndel neighbors, no plans have yet been developed as master planners and landscape architects were eager to work directly with residents to find out their feelings and hopes for the property.

Residents had the opportunity to look at not only native pictures of the property as it stands today, but different features that have been applied to parks in the surrounding area, like recreational facilities, walking trails and nature habitats, to see what they thought fit the property and the area most. Before the start of the meeting, those in attendance were asked to rate a variety of park features and turn them into planners for the project.

Officials made it clear Wednesday night that they wanted the Spring Valley Farm property to be unique to the area and not copies of things that have been done at nearby Core Creek Park or Tyler State Park.

After giving an overview of the property and it’s history, Landscape Architect and Planner Sean Garrigan of Stromberg Garrigan & Associates assimilated the residents into groups where they were free to communicate their needs and desires for the property. While some residents wanted the area to remain fairly untouched, others wanted the property to become a hub for nature education or even local theater productions that would help turn the fairly inaccessible property into a moneymaker.

Garrigan noted that Penndel’s baseball fields may be important in developing a plan for the Spring Valley Farm property. While the Penndel property seems crowded to some with three baseball fields, a playground and two basketball courts on less than four acres, spreading that recreation up throughout the Spring Valley Farm property may help the park flow much easier.

“Hopefully it’s an opportunity to think about, ya know, how will we be sensitive to the history of property, and the relationship of the historic buildings to the landscape of the neighborhood, and yet also engage the community in other ways to sort of experience this land,” said Garrigan to a few dozen residents.

Garrigan, who will work with others to review the residents opinions, hopes to have a draft plan for review by April, and a final master plan for township approval by June.