School district postpones meeting with Clifton on school project

UPPER DARBY » On the same night the Upper Darby School Board approved a public hearing for one school project, it pulled the plug on a meeting to discuss the Clifton Heights middle school project.

The district pulled their Tuesday night meeting with the Clifton Heights Planning Commission to review preliminary land development plans for the proposed 160,000-square-foot middle school on school districtowned land at 217 N. Springfield Road. After an Oct. 8 presentation with the commission, borough Engineer J.P. Kelly reviewed the plans and wrote a 25-page, 126-item review letter that was provided to the district last week.

A statement posted by the district on social media said more time was needed to review the letter before the scheduled Nov. 12 planning commission meeting.

“This forced the district to seek an extension in order to respond to the borough,” read a portion of the statement.

Clifton Heights Mayor Joe Lombardo said Wednesday pointed to the size of the project, adding that it takes time for the borough engineer to thoroughly go through the details to be sure they adhere to zoning ordinances, stormwater management and other factors.

“They requested a hearing on Nov. 12, but it takes our engineer weeks to go through the plan,” he said. “The bottom line is if they would present a plan that worked and didn’t have any deficiencies, we wouldn’t have to do any of this.”

Lombardo believes a new plan will be presented to the commission at the rescheduled Dec. 10 hearing that will further continue the review process.

When the slate of major capital improvement plans were formally presented in February, the middle school timeline showed the district preparing to go a formal public hearing on the plans at the end of this year with the start of the bidding phase to start in the new year.