HLRA Postpones Consultant Choice for Air Base

The Horsham Land Redevelopment Authority will likely wait another two months to select a consultant to lead the board in the next steps of its roughly 10-month process aimed toward redeveloping Willow Grove air base. 

Given that only three of five HLRA board members were present for Wednesday's meeting, Executive Director Mike McGee said it would be best to wait until the full board could be present to discuss what's next for the lengthy redevelopment process, which is expected to take 25 years to complete. 

The most immediate action is for the board to select a professional firm from the two submissions received last month to the board in devising a business plan and pro forma.

McGee told Patch that he hopes to conduct interviews with each of the firms - Matrix Design Group and Weston Solutions/RKG Associates, Inc. - sometime this month. From there, he said either the five-member board, or a smaller committee, would review both proposals. The hope, McGee said, is to make a suggestion for the board's consideration at the January meeting.

RKG served as the HLRA’s lead consultant during the most pivotal phase of the 862-acre redevelopment plan, which included countless public meetings and presentations ultimately leading the board to advance plans without an airport. Based on the uses the board approved last year, RKG also plotted what would go where on the and submitted to the federal government.

The other two firms are "known nationwide," according to McGee, adding that the firms submitted "two very fine proposals."