Forest Road Park Permanent Closure
Since our last update on Forest Road Park, the Township has taken many steps to ensure the safety and security while also working towards reopening the park. In late 2024/early 2025, a fence was installed around the fractured bedrock within the storm water basin. Our Township Engineer has also worked with Township staff to design a new storm water maintenance concept for the park to accommodate for existing impervious surface, since the existing basin is not operational. Additionally, our independent Geology and Geo-physical study has continued and we have received a report for 2025Q1 monitoring results. We would also like to share that The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has not yet provided their report, though we have regularly followed up with for it.
The report that we received from our independent Geology and Geo-physical study indicated that there is movement from the fracture. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the safety of the park go-ers should we reopen the park to the public. Additionally, a new anomaly outside of the fence line, and seemingly unrelated to the existing fracture, was discovered and has developed in the past three months. This new anomaly poses additional safety risk if we were to reopen the park.
We have dutifully and thoroughly explored all options to safely reopen the park, and unfortunately, we have come to the conclusion that we must permanently close the park to safeguard the health and safely of our residents. We want to make it clear to the residents that we are committed to maintaining this park as open space and it will continue to be part of our open space footprint in Hilltown Township.
We respectfully request that our community members do not enter the park. Residents who do trespass will be cited. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to those who are eager for the park to be restored, and continue to invite you all to enjoy our other parks within the Township.
