Following a review of the Ashkar Elementary School Land Development Plan by the Lycoming County Planning Commission, a decision was made to send the lot consolidation portion of the project back to Wolf Township but to approve the remainder of the plan provided conditions were met.

Three different tax parcels are being consolidated into one for the project which will result in a lot containing just over 167 acres.

On the recommendation of the county’s Planning and Community Development Department the commission relinquished the subdivision review and approval of the lot consolidation to Wolf Township.

The school, which is located at 350 Broad Street, Hughesville, is part of the East Lycoming School District and is located in both the township and the borough of Hughesville.

“The general reasoning behind this was because the majority of the land being in Wolf Township, we didn’t want to put the school district through the process of two separate reviews, two separate engineering fees and two separate regulatory reviews,” said Shannon Rossman, director of the county’s Planning and Community Development Department.

“Wolf is relinquishing land development review to us. We’re relinquishing subdivision review to them. This will make it a little easier. They want to get this under construction as soon as possible. They have a lot of issues and it will be easier for their school because of the timeframes,” she said.

The Land Development Plan proposed by the district includes the removal of 53,736 square feet of the existing Ashkar building, along with two basketball courts, volleyball court, soft play playground, play area, pavilion, gazebo, walkways as well as asphalt pavement and 96 parking spaces. The remaining part of the building, 23,620 square feet, will be renovated.

The construction project will include a 52,946 square foot building addition to the remainder of the existing building. Along with that there will be a 4,000 square foot hard play area, a 10,205 square foot hard play area, 15,130 square foot soft play area, a football practice field, walkways, a bus loop, along with several parking lots with handicap parking.

The construction project will also include a stormwater management system with three basins, the relocation of utilities will be required including storm sewer lines, sanitary sewer lines, water lines, gas lines, underground telephone lines, and underground electrical lines.

Following a presentation of the specifics of the project including a discussion on the adequacy of parking and the stormwater management plan, the commission approved the district’s land development plan provided several conditions are met.

The district has six months to take care of all the conditions and once that has happened they have 90 days to record the plan.