The Navy moved out in 1996. Why are abandoned military homes still standing in Ivyland
The Navy is long gone from Warminster and Ivyland, but remnants of its stake in this Central Bucks County communities remain.
And while Warminster has gained traction in turning the old neighborhood of 199 houses, known as Shenandoah Woods, for military personnel from the long-shuttered Naval Air Warfare Center into an expansive township park, its neighboring borough has had to wait.
Six homes, once housing for higher-ranking officers at the center, still sit abandoned and boarded up along Jacksonville Road near Kirk Road, seemingly out of place on the suburban stretch of road.
Ivyland ultimately plans to turn the properties into a passive park, but funding for demolition of the homes has proven costly for the small municipal government.
The six homes, due to their location in Ivyland versus Warminster, were deeded separately from the Shenandoah Woods properties, so the approach to redevelopment by the two municipalities have been fully separate efforts.
And while the Warminister homes were demolished late last year, and their concrete slabs removed this spring, making way for the planning stages for the township park on the 55 acres to begin, the Ivyland properties remain in limbo.
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Redevelopment of old Navy houses on Jacksonville Road in Ivyland stalled
Although the Navy closed the NAWC in 1996, the properties on Jacksonville Road, built in the 1970s, remain as repurposing the lots has been delayed by a failed fundraising effort, the COVID pandemic and the cost of the project, Ivyland Council President Sal DiPaolo
Municipalities must meet requirements in order to have former federally owned land deeded back to them, according to Ivyland Mayor Anthony Judice. He said Ivyland was required to either turn the land into a park or use it to assist the homeless or disadvantaged.
Under these requirements, Ivyland deeded the land to the Bucks County Housing Group, a nonprofit that intended to raise enough money to demolish and redevelop the lot into its own office space.
“At the time we thought it would be beneficial to the county,” Judice said.
But after attempting renovate two of the Jacksonville Road houses, the nonprofit found that costs to redevelop were unfeasible.
"They were never able to raise that money to get that project off the ground," DiPaolo said.
After the housing group left the properties in 2019, Ivyland had to get the land deeded back to it and then the site became its responsibility.
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Ivyland's plans for the Jacksonville houses
“Once that was done our next step was to tear down the six buildings — then we ran into the pandemic,” Judice said. “We had put the demolition out for bids which we are required to do as a government and the cost was going to be way above what we anticipated.”
When Ivyland bid out the demolition project last year, the cost turned out to be about $250,000, according to DiPaolo.
“We will be spending 25% of what we do yearly for everything else just to do this project,” he said.
DiPaolo said that Ivyland is trying to use its available resources to complete the project without overburdening taxpayers. Officials hope to find out by September if the grant has been awarded to the borough.
“We can’t do anything park-wise or development-wise until we get the properties demolished,” DiPaolo said.
Once demolition is over, further spending will be required to turn the site into a park, which DiPaolo said “could be another 50 to 60, maybe even $100,000 depending upon what we want to do with the space.”
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Ivyland awaits grant for demolition of abandoned Navy properties
