YMCA to build rental cabins at Armco Park
With a few new amenities, Butler County Family YMCA is hoping to make Armco Park a destination.
The YMCA plans to build three rental cabins to give people another reason to visit the 62-acre park on Centreville Pike in Slippery Rock Township.
“These new buildings can allow people to spend a weekend with us,” said Tom Spence, executive director of the Butler YMCA.
The additions were made possible by a zoning change the township approved in May to allow recreational campgrounds as a conditional use in the R-2 medium density residential zoning district.
Slippery Rock Township supervisors voted unanimously during their meeting Monday, July 27, to give final approval for the cabins. Josiah Hoefler from Gateway Engineers said during the meeting one of the cabins will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Construction was set to begin after the township’s OK. The cabins could be available for rent as soon as late September or early October, Spence said. Completion of the cabins will be announced by the YMCA via social media.
The county planning commission briefly discussed the project at a meeting in July.
An increase in demand for the park’s venues, facilities and activities led to the idea of building rental cabins, Spence said.
The dance hall is booked two years in advance for weddings, the picnic shelters see a lot of use and the swimming pool and day camps are busy, according to Spence.
“For people attending a reunion or wedding, we like to offer a few places for people to stay the whole weekend,” Spence said.
He said the cabins will be built at the location of former campsites that date to at least the 1960s or 70s and will have water, sewage and electricity. The YMCA is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on the sewage system.
“This is small scale just to enhance the park and maximize what we have here,” Spence said.
Plans call for having the cabins available seasonally from April through mid-November, but that could change, he said. One of the cabins will be accessible for people with disabilities.
“We would like that part of Butler County and the park to become a destination,” Spence said.
Eagle staff writer Sol McCormick contributed to this report.
