Jun 23, 2015 By Cara Host 4 min read

Some residents near the former Logan School Building on Keystone Drive feel they are being kept in the dark over plans to redevelop the site.

“They want to know what is going on there, and I don’t blame them,” Bethel Park Councilman Mark O’Brien said June 22 at a joint meeting with the Bethel Park School Board. The two governing bodies try to schedule a joint meeting at least once a year to discuss issues of interest to both the school board and the municipality.

The school district still owns the property, though it agreed over a year ago to sell it to Bethel Park Retirement Living Properties LP, which plans to demolish the school building and construct a 132-unit apartment building for senior citizens.

Construction was supposed to start in April, but plans were delayed due to environmental concerns associated with the demolition of the building, said Matt Howard, assistant to the superintendent at Bethel Park School District.

Nearby residents were unaware of the delays, so they asked their representative on council, O’Brien, for information. O’Brien said a lack of communication from the school district makes it difficult for him to discern the project’s status.

Howard said he would try to regularly update the municipality on the project’s status so that municipal officials could better inform the residents.

“Any time a development happens in a neighborhood, I think residents are naturally very suspicious,” O’Brien said.

Retirement Management Services of Pittsburgh will operate the senior living complex, which is supposed to be ready for its first occupants sometime next year.

The older adults living there will be independent, since the facility will not provide skilled nursing services, but they will not have to worry about cooking or maintaining their homes. Three meals will be served and the facility will also feature various activities, a fitness center, beauty salon, worship center and a car service to take residents’ to doctor appointments and other places.

Logan School has not been used as an elementary school for at least 20 years. It more recently served as classrooms for Community College of Allegheny County, but it has been unused for the past four years while the school district tried to sell the property. Bethel Park Retirement Living Properties, a subsidiary of Retirement Management Services, agreed to purchase the parcel for $700,000 last May.

School district officials also updated their municipal counterparts on a slide that developed on Sherwood Road, near the high school. Winter weather may have caused the damage, but contractors have looked at the road and it appears stable for now, Howard said. The road will be repaired soon.

Municipal officials updated school board members on development projects that are in various stages of completion in Bethel Park. YMCA has long had plans to develop a health center at the former Bladerunners Ice Rink near the high school. For several years, the project has been stuck in litigation with a group opposing the project, but most of the legal hurdles have been cleared, so YMCA should be able to move forward, said Jerry Duke, municipal planner.

Other major developments include:

Millennium Woods, a new neighborhood of 49 single family homes off Baptist Road, is under construction; a 300-unit apartment building at South Hills Village is under review; Hillcrest Christian Academy’s new classroom building on Bethel Church Road is awaiting a building permit; Bethel Park Volunteer Fire Station on Brightwood Road is under construction; the new Eat’n Park restaurant on Library Road is under construction; Cool Springs Golf Center is constructing a new recreation center and has plans to build an assisted living facility; A Step Up Veterinary Clinic is under construction on Clifton Road; and Bruce Brothers/Millennium Shops on Library Road is under construction.

“There’s a lot going on,” said Council President Tim Moury. “We’re seeing a lot of redevelopment in Bethel Park.”