Extension Granted for Air Base Redevelopment Plan

The board charged with devising a redevelopment plan for 839 acres of the shuttered has been granted a three-month extension.

The Horsham Land Reuse Authority’s forthcoming mixed-use plan is now due to the federal government by March 31, according to a Nov. 16 letter from Patrick J. O’Brien, Office of Economic Adjustment director.

“I have determined that an extension is in the best interest of the community,” O’Brien wrote in the letter to HLRA Executive Director .

The HLRA originally had until Dec. 18 to submit an approved plan for the former base.

HLRA Chairman and sitting Horsham Township councilman W. William Whiteside said the extension means the board can take its time refining the plan and making sure it’s “detailed enough to do the things we want to do,” while maintaining necessary flexibility.

“We don’t have a whole lot of chances at this,” Whiteside said of his hope to craft the best plan possible for the massive parcel, which represents roughly 8 percent of 17-square-mile Horsham Township.

Moving forward, Whiteside said the intent is for the board, at its Dec. 21 meeting, to share specific feedback on so that consultant can make revisions and present the board in January with a version closer to its vision. Once any last minute adjustments are made, Whiteside said the plan would be approved during the authority’s February or March meeting.

“We’re all anxious about this, including the board,” Whiteside said.

Still being ironed out are the parcel sizes for the roughly half dozen public benefit conveyances for various nonprofit groups, and . The board, in July submitted for various developments including, among other things, an , a , homeless housing and a memorial park/air museum for the Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association.

At the most recent meeting, RKG representatives outlined a 14-acre plot for Hatboro-Horsham School District even though the school board, in its application, had requested 60 acres.

Representatives from DVHAA, the group of volunteers that operate the on Route 611, said they are fearful that acreage allotted for their planned memorial park and museum will not be adequate. Mark Hurwitz said DVHAA favors a roughly 50-acre location in the vicinity where the museum is currently situated.

“Our ultimate goal is to have most of our aircraft inside,” Hurwitz said. “Until we get a piece of property it’s hard to put something down on paper because things change so much.”

DVHAA had submitted several notices of interest, for varying amounts of land, in different parts of the air base. Officials had said that the HLRA requested this as an assurance that DVHAA could be included in the final redevelopment plan. Hurwitz said the hope is to also make use of hangar 175, where the Navy held its in March.

“We could put a lot of aircraft in there,” Hurwitz said. “They don’t have to knock down those buildings. They don’t have to take up that concrete.”

Whiteside said the size and location of land for DVHAA – and the other approved notices of interest - is being worked out.

“We’re doing our best to accommodate everybody. We get letters regularly from all kinds of people saying ‘the property’s not big enough, the property’s not big enough,’ ” Whiteside said. “We do support DVHAA.”