"It's obvious that many residents don't recognize the economic impact this is going to have on the community," said Robert S. Taylor, chairman of the Bucks County NAWC Economic Adjustment Committee. Taylor said that 10 percent of those surveyed did not know about the relocation of the base or thought that it was unlikely.
Under the 1991 Military Base Realignment and Closure Act, the base was targeted for reorganization. Eighty percent of the center's activities will be relocated to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. Only 250 of the center's 2,400 employees will remain at the center.
The survey was the county's first step in determining what it will do with the 700 acres and 1 million square feet of office and laboratory space the Navy will leave behind.
According to the poll, residents' top choice for the future use of the site is a college or university. Twenty-seven percent of those polled said a
college or university would be the best use for the site; 13 percent wanted to attract a large manufacturer; 11 percent preferred a sports and recreation center, and 10 percent wanted a research and development center. The rest of the respondents did not name a best use for the site or named other uses.
The idea of using the existing runway on the site for an airport to serve Bucks and Montgomery Counties ran into strong opposition. Sixty percent of those surveyed said an airport that would increase flight traffic was a fair or poor idea.
Putting an office park on the site also did not draw favorable reaction, with 52 percent of those surveyed calling it a fair or poor idea. Sixty-eight percent of residents called locating a tourist attraction on the site a poor or fair idea.
The survey also showed that 71 percent of those polled were concerned that the eight Superfund sites on the property be properly cleaned up. Thirty-nine nearby wells have been contaminated by toxins leaking from the Superfund sites, and testing is continuing.
The telephone survey of 350 residents within a three-mile radius of the center was conducted by Psychonometrics Inc., of Upper Southampton, and cost the county $9,500.
The county commissioners hired the Philadelphia office of the consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand in September to draft a preliminary economic strategy for the use of the site. The draft, which will cost the county $169,475, is expected next year.
The county received a $276,000 federal grant last year to study the effect of the Navy's move. The county is contributing $38,000 in community block grant money to the project.
