The Lower Bucks County YMCA is aiming to sell its current Bristol Township location and build a new location on county property near Lake Caroline on Hood Boulevard in Falls Township.
Earlier this year, the Lower Bucks County YMCA submitted tentative plans to develop a new facility on a 50,000-square-foot area that sits near the lake and the county-operated Oxford Valley Pool. The lake and pool site on 81.7 acres of county park land.
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The plans for the building have not yet been formally presented before the Falls Board of Supervisors.
According to a recent report by the Bucks County Courier Times, before construction of a new YMCA complex can begin, the nonprofit will need Falls officials to rezone the county land on Hood Boulevard. The open space is currently zoned by the township as protected park land.
The 2.4 acre property on South Oxford Valley Road where the YMCA currently stands in Bristol Township has two deed restrictions, making it difficult to sell.
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Those deed restrictions were set decades ago by the developer, The Danherst Corp, and involve conditions on three parcels of land sold to the YMCA. One deed sets aside a parcel strictly for YMCA use and another designates the other two parcels for strictly residential uses, such as single-family homes.
Cedar Properties, the prospective buyer of the original property on South Oxford Valley Road, has instead proposed tearing down the current YMCA building and in its place building a 19,200-square-foot retail building and a 3,000-square foot drive-in restaurant, with 153 parking spaces, according to a tentative plan the YMCA and Cedar Properties submitted to the Bucks County Planning Commission in March, the newspaper reported.
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According to Falls Township Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Harvie, the earliest YMCA officials could submit their plans would be October. Once plans are submitted, the supervisors could then vote to grant the change at a later meeting.
The YMCA has been looking to move to a new facility for several years, announcing in 2014 that they planned to sell their aging current building.
Credit: Falls Township
