Horsham officials just took another small step in the decades long redevelopment process for the former Willow Grove Naval Air base with the approval of the official map for the plan Monday night.
The official map does not dictate the future land uses on the site but instead identifies the locations of public lands and facilities like streets, trails, water and sewer infrastructure and more.
"It can be amended but it give us and any future developer that is interested in the property, shows them where these public facilities are located on the base," said Horsham Township Manager William T. Gildea-Walker.
Now approved, the map can only be changed through official council action in the future.
The former base closed in 2011 and since then, the township and the Horsham Land Redevelopment Authority have been planning the strategic mixed-use redevelopment of the 862-acre site off Route 611. The official redevelopment plan for the site was federally approved in 2012.
The project was previously stalled by extensive PFAS remediation efforts on the site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"Historically the (Department of Defense), they like to transfer their closed bases all at once," Gildea-Walker said, but the township has instead proposed a phased transfer of the property so that they can begin working on land that has already been remediated.
Gildea-Walker said that the recent zoning change was also a signal to the Navy that the township is taking steps to move forward with the redevelopment as they continue to negotiate the land transfer. It was also a protective measure to ensure that as negotiations continue, the land could not be developed into warehouses or another industrial use in the meantime, he said.
It is still impossible to know how many phases there will be or how long they will take, Gildea-Walker said, but if everything goes smoothly in the near future, they might be able to start construction on the first phase in five years.
"Whether its seven phases or 15 phases, no one has that answer," he said, but realistically, the redevelopment of the entire 862 acres will take "probably 25 to 30 years before its completed."
What is planned for former Willow Grove base in Horsham?
Under the current plan, the sprawling site would be home to multiple housing types of varying price levels including single-family lots, townhomes, apartments or condos, and a Continuing Care Retirement Community, according to a map of the project.
About 25% of the land will remain open space in various forms like parks, trails and gathering space around the planned town center, Gildea-Walker said.
The project will also designate approximately 10 acres of land for 70 permanent supportive housing units for those struggling with homelessness.
In addition to housing, the plan is "focused on the creation of job generating uses" like office parks, a hotel and a conference center with the potential to create around 7,000 jobs, according to the HLRA's official website for the project. About 3,500 of those jobs were legally required to be replaced under the federal Base Realignment and Closure process.
Throughout the plan's development with residents, Gildea-Walker said that the community didn't want this to become "a town within our town," so they tried to have it blend in with the rest of the township in terms of housing types, commercial areas and more. The one new thing that residents asked for he said, was a town center as a much-needed central gathering place for the community.
The town center and surrounding area could eventually include amenities like a movie theater, bowling alley, ice skating rink and more retail and restaurant options.
A 40-acre section of the redevelopment will remain earmarked for the school district, but its future use may change depending on the timeline and the district's needs.
Which of the many projects begin first will depend largely on which areas of the former base the township obtains first and what developers want to build.
All of the plan's individual elements will need to go through the typical land development process with the township. Ultimately, Horsham Township Council would need to approve each project's specific development plans before any work could begin on the ground.
Next up for the project will be a comprehensive rezoning of the base to more closely allign with the uses outlined in the plan which township staff hopes to bring before Council by the end of the year.
Lacey Latch is the development reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer. She can be reached at.