How Soon Will Horsham Own Former Air Base?

After years of planning that led to a locally approved land development plan for 862 acres of the former NASJRB-Willow Grove, property could begin to be transferred from the federal government by this time next year. 

The federal government’s intention, at least for now, is to transfer portions of the former air base–which represents roughly 8 percent of 17-square-mile Horsham Township–in three separate transfers, according to Mike McGee, Horsham Land Redevelopment Authority executive director. 

McGee told Patch that the government considers the “funding of suitability to transfer,” when determining which parcels should be conveyed first.

The first area to leave federal hands would be all the property from Maple Avenue, to and including Keith Valley Road, which comprises the shuttered airport runway and taxiways, he said. 

“There is no contamination there,” McGee said. “It’s clean property and easily transferred.”

The second portion envisioned for transfer would be between the runway and Route 611 where the majority of the base’s buildings are situated.

“They are in the midst of doing their surveys and cleaning up and identifying any asbestos and lead paint,” McGee said. “They don’t expect any radiological contamination. They just have to do the surveys.”

The area along Horsham Road where contamination continues to exist in the base’s former landfills would be the last to transfer, he said.

“That property will not transfer until they have a game plan in effect for the landfills,” McGee said. “They have yet to make a decision as to how they’re going to treat the landfills.”

McGee said he anticipates that the last portion of property would transfer with “land use controls in place,” outlining, for instance, that wells could not be installed for drinking water.

Like everything else in the nearly nine-year base closure and redevelopment process, transferring property, too, will involve numerous steps.

Land transfer steps

For starters, Matrix Design Group, the HLRA’s consultants hired in January to study traffic, water and sewer, stormwater management and other factors analyzed in large-scale developments, will present a business plan "of how we can make it work," McGee said. 

McGee said that is expected to happen at the HLRA’s Dec. 18 meeting and will include a "fine tuning" of the costs associated with the ultimate build out. Officials said previously that infrastructure alone would cost $145 million. Of that, runway demolition could cost $17 million. 

The HLRA’s previous consultant, RKG Associates, led the year-long process of devising a mixed-use redevelopment plan consisting of more than 1,400 homes, a 133-acre office park, a robust town center and regional recreational center, 40 acres for a new Hatboro-Horsham school, roads through the massive property and more. McGee said Matrix representatives too, favor that plan.

“This is an entirely different team of consultants that did the redevelopment plan,” McGee said. “That, to some extent, was intentional.”

McGee said the HLRA board wanted to have “two sets of eyes and two sets of consultants studying the same project.”

Even so, “the end result is still the same,” he said.

Following Matrix’s presentation, McGee said he expects that the board will take action at its Jan. 15 meeting and soon after will submit an economic development conveyance application to the federal government.

“Like any real estate transaction, you have to have a willing buyer and a motivated seller,” McGee said. “How long it will take? I’ll tell you the day after we go to settlement.”

McGee said federal officials have said its review would take about 60 days. Comments and questions–from both sides–would likely result.

By June, McGee said he hopes the HLRA and the federal government would be able to reach an agreement “on the value of the property and terms and conditions and so forth.” 

“We’re hoping to be able to take possession of some of the property by the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015,” McGee said.

Who will foot the bill for acquiring the 862-acre property? Check back here for more.