HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA — Take a good, close look at the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base. Because the landscape probably isn't going to change anytime soon.
Despite a public hearing next month to amend an ordinance on the final preferred land use plan, development of the massive property off Route 611 and Horsham Road won't be happening in the near future, Township Manager Bill Walker told Patch on Monday.
Walker said the township is taking steps to keep the property's development away from having factories and industrial plants along the Route 611 corridor.
A public hearing on the proposed ordinance will be held at 7:45 p.m. on June 11 at the township building.
Walker is worried that, due to the public hearing, residents think the property will be under construction this summer.
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Amendment approval may allow the township to develop some land that does not need extensive cleanup. The amendment also allows the township to be ready once the Navy signs off on the arrangement, officials said.
"All we're doing is being protective," Walker said. "We just want to be ready. You don't change zoning overnight. We're protecting the land and we're protecting the community."
The township sees the 862-acre base off Route 611 as a mixed-use development that would include a town center, office park, and regional recreation center, along with some housing.
So the public hearing calls for amending the ordinance to rezone the land from industrial to half for residential and half for commercial.
Walker said the township has a great relationship with the Navy and plans for the base call for phased-in development so the Navy could transfer some property ownership to the township next year or two years from now.
"Time will tell," he said. "But we're making progress with negotiations. We have a good-faith relationship. It's ongoing. We are closer than ever."
The process has been long in the making, with ownership transfer discussions to Horsham Township going back more than a decade regarding the base, which is wrapped by Horsham Road, Route 611, and County Line Road.
The NAS-JRB Willow Grove property represents 8 percent of the 17-square-mile township.
The redevelopment plan is being overseen by the Horsham Land Redevelopment Authority.
"No land is being transferred," Walker said in terms of what will happen at the public hearing. "There's no development."