A new location has been proposed for the controversial Lancaster Township emergency services center, one that could potentially assuage the concerns of many of the project’s past opponents, according to Michael Rowen of the School District of Lancaster board. Rowen discussed the proposal at the board’s Tuesday evening meeting, calling it “a possible win-win situation.”

The School District of Lancaster owns the space known as the Lancaster Township Community Park and leases it to Lancaster Township. The proposed center would be located within this property, and the school board would have to provide authorization for any alternative land use.

Rather than sitting behind Planet Fitness with private access drives to Atkins Ave and Millersville Pike, the new location would front on Millersville Pike, sitting alongside the Planet Fitness parking lot. A one-way private drive leading to the fire house from Atkins Avenue would run along the Manor House Apartment’s property line and behind Planet Fitness. It would begin at a point that would minimize travel along the residential Atkins Ave.

All emergency vehicles would exit at Millersville Pike.

The new proposed location was developed by the Township over the last couple of weeks, according to Rowen.

Area residents have complained that earlier proposals would displace athletic fields used by the district, which would then likely move them to wooded sections of the park. But not under the new proposal. According to Rowen, the new location would not impact existing baseball and soccer fields.

Other residents have expressed concerns that the earlier proposed location would send fire trucks blazing down the residential pass of Atkins Ave. But this, also, would be mitigated under the new proposal, Rowen said, since only returning vehicles would travel through the ‘back’ entrance—which itself has been pushed further away from residences on Atkins.

At the Tuesday school board meeting, the new location appeared to be an improvement even in terms of acreage preserved: “The previous location had a footprint of six to seven acres, mostly due to water retention and having to put all of the trees and shrubbery around it,” Rowen explained, “If they move it over to Millersville Pike, the zoning requirements are different, and since it’s right up against the existing parking lot of Planet Fitness, it does not need to have the trees and does not need as much water retention or runoff facilities.”

Rowen concluded, “We’ve cut the size of the footprint in half. It’s about two to three acres, rather than about six or seven acres.”

Superintendant Pedro Rivera noted that the administration would not be opposed to any plan that avoids territory eyed by the district for potential future expansion. The new proposal, Rivera said, “works for us,” further asserting that “this is much better than I had originally envisioned.”