Lower Bucks YMCA Plan To Build On Park Land Scrapped

The Lower Bucks Family YMCA will not be building on the park land at Lake Caroline off Hood Boulevard in Falls Township.

The controversial plan was nixed following a vote by the Bucks County Parks Preservation Foundation earlier this month, according to an article by Christian Menno of the Doylestown Intelligencer.

The plan for the $16 million 48,000-square-foot building that could be expanded to 55,000-square-feet over time seemed to gain little local traction outside of YMCA members over the past few months.

Officials from the YMCA presented sketch plans for their proposed facility to the public last month. The plans showed the YMCA on 13 of more than 81 acres of county-owned park land, much of the land wooded. The new YMCA would include a gym, indoor pool, community space and additional room for staff.

“We had plans to minimize the impact on the park and maximize the recreational opportunities for our members but we didn’t get the support we had hoped for,” Moore told the newspaper.

The YMCA has a pending $3.1 million agreement of sale for their aging facility along South Oxford Valley Road in Bristol Township. Zane More, acting CEO of Lower Bucks Family YMCA and CEO of the Central Bucks YMCA, said the current YMCA building needs more than $2 million in work and would still need further updates. The site also does not have enough parking for members.

The YMCA has not stated where they will look next as a new home for their facility, but they will begin eying new potential locations. The team in the past looked at sites in Bristol Township and near the Reedman-Toll car dealership in Middletown and Kohl’s in Lower Makefield.

“We are hopeful that the Y will be able to find a suitable property in the immediate area so they continue to serve the people of Lower Bucks. We would love to have them in Falls,” said Bob Harvie, the chairman of Falls’s Board of Supervisors.

The idea for proposing the new YMCA facility came after Bucks County officials approached the nonprofit about taking over management of the public Oxford Valley Pool. Moore, a Fairless Hills native, said in October that his team looked at the request and further expanded upon the idea of relocating their operations to the park.

Ralph McClellan, a former Levittown resident who is listed as serving on the YMCA Board of Directors, advocated for the facility near the lake before the Falls Board of Supervisors in fall. He stated that building at the park would cut down on the deer population that he feared were hazardous to residents due to accidents they can cause and ticks they carry. He also called a portion of the park near the pool a “trash-strewn wooded area that is currently a haven for drug and underage alcohol use.”

Many of those who spoke against the plan before the Supervisors were not opposed to the YMCA, but did not feel the site was the right location.

A petition against construction of the YMCA at the proposed Falls site received more than 3,700 signatures.

The proceeds of the sale of the current YMCA building would pay off a crushing $2 million in debt and leave some money left over. A retail area has been proposed for that site with two other nearby lots already sold.

The Lower Bucks Family YMCA is merging with the Central Bucks YMCA, which has managed it over the past few years.