Wissahickon School District. Photo by James Short.
The sliver of grassy space is located at School Road and Route 73/Skippack Pike.
The Wissahickon School District (WSD) is about to sell some of its land to Whitpain Township. But there is not much to get excited about, as the total sale of the property involves about 5,940 square feet, all told.
Timothy Bricker, the business administrator for WSD, said during the Facilities and Transportation Committee Report that the small piece of land, located in Blue Bell, is located at 800 School Road.
The address is home to a bus parking lot, operated by First Student. While the school bus operator’s name is on the address (and adjoining signage), it is land owned by WSD.
The township is seeking to purchase the piece of land in order to install a traffic light along Route 73. The township has offered to pay $53,000 to the WSD for rightful ownership over the space.
WSD School Board Vice President Joe Antonio asked, in the board’s work session on Sept. 30, how the price was decided upon for the sale.
“To be honest, Whitpain Township decided that that would be the fair amount,” said Bricker. “They could always eminent domain.”
In the case of eminent domain, according to the Pennsylvania Title 26 of statues for the state, such acting governmental bodies, such as the municipality, has the power to “take private property for public use in return for just compensation.”
Given the small size of the land requested, and its current usage, Bricker said he agreed with the pricing.
“It is just a sliver of the side of the road of School Road that we do not utilize,” he said. “It’s really an unused grassy area for us.”
Other board members questioned the timing of such a project, and Bricker relayed that the township told him the installation of a traffic light in that vicinity may take “about a year.”
The projected traffic signal is slated to be introduced at School Road and Route 73 in Whitpain Township. As part of an April 2024 Engineer’s Report for Whitpain Township Engineer James E. Blanch, P.E., a line under “Active Projects” simply lists the address as part of an ongoing plan listed as “LD-3-22.”
Labeled there as the “Blue Bell Elementary School Expansion and Alterations LD,” at 800 School Road, the township report states that the additional traffic light is part of an ongoing construction project, which includes plans for a 31,089-square-foot building addition and “associated access and parking improvements.” The space, located in an Institutional Zoning District, is estimated to cover 18.76 acres overall.
However, the small “sliver of land,” as it was described during the WSD school board work session, is only a tiny part of a far larger plan. The topic will be placed on the October business meeting of the board.
What Antonio described as an “action item for consideration” during his Facilities and Transportation Committee Report, will be put to a vote next week. The WSD School Board will meet for its Regular Public Board Meeting on Monday, Oct. 7.
