Vacant Site Turned Into Bristol Twp.’s Newest Recreation Area

Since Don and Kris Liedtke moved to their home six years ago, the three-acre property behind their residence has been an eyesore.

Strewn with debris and metal drums and covered by overgrown weeds and downed branches, the former Miller’s Trailer Park at Cedar and Main avenues in Bristol Township’s Croydon section has been transformed over the past year into a a new recreation spot.

On Saturday morning, a few dozen residents and local leaders gathered to cut the ribbon on the soon-to-open Cedar Avenue Park.

“We were extremely impressed,” Don Liedtke said of the new park.

Bristol Township Council President Craig Bowen said reveloping the vacant mobile home park, which closed in 2007, was a priority after it sat vacant and overgrown for a number of years. Bowen said former council member Troy Brennan made the push several years back when a developer aimed to construct town homes on the vacant site.

“Well, look at this,” Democratic State Rep. Tina Davis, a resident of Croydon, told the crowd.

Davis said the park is why residents of the section should be proud to live there.

The township purchased the unkempt lot from a private developer using $663,000 from a federal Housing and Urban Community Development Block Grant grant in 2016. Another $250,000 in state grants obtained with the help of Republican State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson were used by Bristol Township to construct the passive recreation space that will open soon.

Officials said crews are finishing planting sod and adding lights, benches, and trash receptacles.

The Liedtkes said aside from having the benefit of a new park in their backyard, they also expect their homes value to increase due to the neighborhood upgrade.

“This was truly a team effort starting with Council, Township Manager Bill McCauley, Deputy Township Manager Randee Elton and Senator Tomlinson and Representative Davis all working together to make this project come true,” said Bowen.

The Bucks County Redevelopment Authority helped the township remediate the site, the Council president said.