Politics & Government

Shenandoah Woods Officially Labeled Blighted Area

The Bucks County and Warminster planning committees agreed to the designation after reviewing documentation of the neighborhood's deteriorating condition.

The Bucks County and Warminster planning commission agreed last week to officially identify Shenendoah Woods as a blighted area and certified the former military housing neighborhood to the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority (BCRDA) as a redevelopment area.

The decision came following review of evidence that Shenandoah Woods met several of the criteria necessary to earn the blighted label, including inadequate planning of the area, faulty street and lot layout and economically or socially undesirable land use.

Warminster Township solicitor Michael Savona described the designation as the first of many steps toward redeveloping the 199 vacated residential units into a new neighborhood with 113 single and twin homes. The blighted label will help lower the value of the area when the BCRDA makes its bid for purchase from the Navy.

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Photos of the now vacant Shenandoah Woods homes showed that the Navy had removed the plumbing fixtures, making the houses uninhabitable. The roads are too narrow, and there is only one entrance/exit into the neighborhood, off of Bristol Road. The empty neighborhood provides little opportunity for tax revenue, the BCRDA's report states, making it an economic and social liability.

Initially constructed as part of Warminster's Naval Air Development Center (NADC), the federal government held on to Shenandoah Woods after the NADC's closure in 1996 and used it as off-base housing for the  .

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Since the announcement of that base's closure, the Horsham Land Reuse Authority (HLRA) has been working with Warminster and Ivyland to submit a redevelopment plan to the federal government.

On the second attempt, the Department of Housing and Urban Development a plan that properly met considerations for the homeless community, a requirement for the sale of military property.

The proposal states that Warminster Township will acquire 25 acres of woodlands along the eastern and southern borders of the site, part of which will be used for a new stormwater retention facility. The Bucks County Housing Group will take possession of six homes in Ivyland that will be demolished and replaced by its administration headquarters. Finally, Aldie Counseling Centers will be given 20 units, then sell them to the BCRDA and use the money for operational purposes.


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