County Looks At Expanding Levittown Government Services Center

An expansion could be coming to the Lower Bucks County Government Services Center in Bristol Township’s Levittown section.

County officials are exploring multiple options for the county government annex used by various departments – ranging from sheriff’s deputies to the health department – near the Levittown Branch of the Bucks County Free Library and District Judge Terry Hughes courthouse.

Bucks County government issued an request for proposals (RFP) recently seeking proposals from architects for designs and land development proposals for a new or expanded annex at the site off New Falls Road.

James O’Malley, a county spokesperson, said the process is still in its early stages and details are being hashed out. The county has not committed to any development or plans.

The Bucks County Commissioners could vote later this month on hiring an architect to develop a proposal.

The current Lower Bucks County Government Services Center building has been in place for 30 years and is smaller than the county’s needs. Numerous departments work out of the building and space can be tight.

“It’s a small building that has outlived it’s usefulness,” O’Malley said.

There has been talk of expanding the facility or building a new annex over the past 15 years.

O’Malley said federal COVID-19 recovery funds could be used for potential development, but it was too early for any decisions.

“As this project goes forward, assuming it does, we’ll be keeping the public apprised of it,” O’Malley said.

The site that is largely wooded is home to Levittown Fire Company No. 2, the Bucks County Emergency Homeless Shelter, a county communication tower, a field office for the district attorney’s detectives, and a large district attorney’s office warehouse used to store equipment and seized vehicles. The site connects to county park property that runs from Bristol Township and Middletown Township into Falls Township.

Bucks County purchased the 135-acre plot that previously was the site for manufacturing of rocket engines and 20mm ammunition from Morton Thiokol. The county paid $1 for the site, but had to pay for demolition and conversion of some facilities and also to clean up contamination of numerous hazardous materials on the site and in its soil.

Some of the property was used to build the Bucks County Technical High School and the county later had to purchase 8.2 acres for $400,000 from a mortgage company to avoid development on the land, according to a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1994.

The Bristol Township Planning Commission told county officials in 1990 that they wished officials had a larger and more comprehensive plan for the tract. At the time, it was noted that the roughly 5,000-square-foot building that exists today would have to rotate departments in and out to accommodate staff and residents.

In 1962, one man was killed and five others hurt at the Morton Thiokol site when an unused pipe exploded at the site. The blast was reported by the Levittown Times to have rocked houses across the lower end of the county. The explosion badly damaged an unused section of an ordinance shed.

Over the past 15 years, the county has undertaken several large building projects, including construction of the Justice Center in Doylestown Township, converting the former courthouse into the Bucks County Administration Building, shrinking the number of leased offices across the county into buildings owned by the county, and selling off unused buildings.

When the current commissioner majority took office in 2020, their transition report called for evaluating county real estate and facilities.

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