Plans for Bethel Park senior housing approved
A new apartment building for senior citizens could open by late 2016, after Bethel Park Council approved plans for the development Dec. 14.
YMCA currently owns the lot at Limestone and McMurray roads, but Clover-Lancaster Group plans to build a three-story senior living facility there. The building will have about 135 one- and two-bedroom apartments reserved for people 55 years old and older who are capable of living independently.
Construction should start in the spring and take between eight months to a year to complete.
Plans also call for the installation of a traffic light at Limestone and McMurray Roads. Earlier this month, several residents of that area expressed concern that the light may hamper them from accessing their driveway.
However, the state Department of Transportation already had plans to install a light at that intersection. Traffic impact studies indicated that one has been needed there for some time.
The senior housing facility will have two entrances and exits, one on Limestone Road and the other on McMurray Road.
It will also have an extensive sidewalk system that will connect with the nearby Montour Trail. Clover, which is based in Buffalo, N.Y., manages senior living facilities in Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. The average age of residents living in those buildings is 78 and most buildings offer a variety of activities for retired people as well as transportation to shopping districts and doctors’ appointments.
In another matter, council approved a plan to reduce pollutants that seep into the stormwater system and eventually flows into the Saw Mill Run watershed. The state Department of Environmental Protection required all municipalities within the watershed to come up with a plan to reduce their Total Maximum Daily Load for pollutants, specifically sediment and nitrogen and phosphorus.
Bethel Park’s plan includes buying a street sweeper and using it to remove sediment from streets, implementing volume control strategies to control the amount of stormwater handled at one time in the stormwater system, and educating residents about ways to reduce stormwater runoff at their homes, by using landscaping techniques and rain barrels.
DEP required the TMDL plans to improve the quality of Saw Mill Run and reduce flooding along the creek.
Councilman Mark O’Brien asked residents to help him organize a tribute to the first Bethel Park police officer to have been killed in the line of duty, Patrolman Joseph Chmelynski. A burglary suspect shot Chmelynski in 1948.
O’Brien would like residents who might have more biographical information about Chmelynski to share it by contacting the borough office.
“I want to honor him,” O’Brien said. “He passed away at 25, but there was a lot of life that he lived in such a short amount of time.”