DVHAA
McGee: going through the points of suitability to the lease. Original request included the existing museum, the adjacent houses and part of an existing building for the restoration area. There may be lead and asbestos issues with both the houses and the LRA does not want the liability. The houses have been removed from the request. The restoration area is not contiguous to the museum. There were also issues with utilities to the restorations area discussed; there will be no electricity or fuel for the heating of the building. HVAA will use generators and bring in their own fuel; the Navy will not allow storage of petroleum products on the base after they close.
Presently McGee says there is a punch list of items to be gone through but there is no lease at this time.
There was a drawing presented showing the original request and the revised request by the HVAA presented.
Flying club at Willow Grove, the fuel tank they use is also going to be removed from the site.
Mike also brought up the issue if ANY of the buildings on the base presently meet Horsham Township building codes since the military is not required to meet any codes.
There was also a drawing presented that located the area of the base which the Air Force is going to retain, located on the north west end / side of the runway. The drawing was presented with north facing down rather than up. The Air Force also wanted access to the main gate; the Navy is only going to grant an easement. The gate area has been declared surplus.
DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT EXACTLY HAS BEEN DECLARED SURPLUS?
The county commissioners recently requested through a PBA for a county park of 18 to 50 acres around the existing Army Reserve center in order to have a place to house the HVAA museum,
The FAA has requested a building restriction easement of 1500 feet around the existing radar antenna the other related structures on approximately 3.1 acres near Horsham and Norristown Roads. The details of the easement are not clear at this time. Mike McGee seems to feel that they are height restrictions.
The County Commissioners have made a request of 400 to 500 acres that will also be considered a park for some type of use as an airport.
Gentlemen by the name of Fred Hagan submitted a drawing on behalf of the DVHAA relocated the museum and restoration area within the base, similar to discussed above.
McGee moved the meeting onto discussing items related to the Bucks County Housing Group. Reimbursement of $5000 or $15,000 was discussed relating to planning consultants. The consultant BBP is involved. Some existing military housing in Ivyland is going to be demolished and the new headquarters for the BCHG is to be constructed there.
The list of checks was approved but what the checks were for was not discussed.

Agendas for upcoming meeting was presented by McGee
RKG
April 20 – Evening meeting – Report their findings
The meeting will be broken into groups, possibly four so RKG may interact with smaller groups

May 18 – Daytime meeting
June 10 and 11 RKG is again going to meet with interested parties in the community to discuss possible uses based on their findings from the April 20 meeting
4th Wednesday of July (27 July) another evening meeting
August 27 – No Agenda discussed
September meeting to discuss viability
October 3 – Evening meeting
November 16 – Evening meeting
December meeting – THE REDEVELOPMENT PLAN MUST BE SUBMITTED BY DECEMBER
HUD and the Navy will review and respond to the redevelopment plan, their response is to be expected in 60 days to six months.
Heated discussion about the time table
There was discussion about any published data the FAA might have on the base and flight.
Sometime mid 2012, probably not until 2014 the government will issue an environmental impact statement. More than likely it will be 2015 before any real work is completed at the base.
The question was brought up if anyone other than the county has requested an aviation study?
McGee stressed that an entity must make the request for an airport to the FAA and from what Mike says no one has made such a request. THERE MUST BE AN APPLICANT FOR AN AIRPORT LICENSE! – Various discussion about the type of airport, some heated.
THERE MUST BE A CLEAR DIRECTION TO THE REDEVELOPMENT PLAN BEFORE NOVEMBER!
The question was brought up; WHY WAS THERE NOT AN AVIATION SUB COMMITTEE FORMED? Some residents were interested in having such a committee.

Meeting ended just before 5pm.

Front Page of Todays Intelligencer; Hoffel and Matthews want to comission a study into preserving the runway for possible future use. phillyburbs.com has the full story from todays paper

Can existing properties be relocated to “base propety” should the need arise to disrupt properties for road improvements?

The expansion of the Park Creek Sewage Treatment Plant has been underway for some time.

We need to hear from people involved with the Museum

One use I’d like to see on a personal note. One idea that has been brought up is using the runway, once it’s closed, for Land Speed Racing, five times a year in North Carolina and twice a year in Maine “abandoned” runways much like Willow Grove are used to land speed racing. The events are short, Friday to Sunday afternoon and are only run during the daylight hours. There are sections of Johnsville that are used for Auto Cross already. The LSR events do not draw huge crowds but they do bring people from out of the area for safe and controlled racing. I do have a personal interest in this interim use and from what I understand removing the runway at this point in time is cost prohibitive.