SCOTCH PLAINS - For seven decades, Bowcraft on Route 22 was an affordable place to take children for an afternoon.

Now, if a plan is approved, it's going to be a site for affordable housing.

The township planning board will consider at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday whether to designate the 13-acre property on westbound Route 22 as a redevelopment area.

That designation will allow the township to negotiate a financial agreement, a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), with the would-be developers of the 13-acre site, ATA Developers.

READ: Veteran-owned American Heroes Smokehouse in Scotch Plains to hold grand opening

READ: Scotch Plains-Fanwood hopes to establish a football identity

ATA had received approval in December 2016 to demolish the family amusement park and build 200 housing units — 190 apartments and 10 townhouses.

Of the units, according to the preliminary investigation of the property, 35 will be designated as affordable.

The apartments will be in three four-story buildings and three three-story buildings.

The four-story buildings have 40 or 39 apartments and the three-story buildings have 24 apartments each.

The townhomes will be in two buildings, one with six units and the other with four units.

The plans call for 419 parking spaces for the property which abuts the Watchung Reservation.

The development also will have a clubhouse and a swimming pool.

Bowcraft was opened in 1946 by Ted and Isabel Miller. The property originally had a store, archery range and ski slope. The rides were added later and a stream was dammed to create a pond for canoeing in the summer and ice skating in the winter.

In 1995, the Millers sold the land For $2.8 million to Afrim, Shain, Kutim, Sami and Vaide Marke. They later sold it to VS Realty. ATA Developers has a contract to buy the property. Even after the contract was announced, Bowcraft has continued to operate as a family-fun destination.

The Bowcraft site is included in the township's affordable housing agreement reached in April in Superior Court. The agreement also calls for affordable housing on the former Parker Gardens site on Terrill Road and the Amberg Garden Center on Lamberts Mill Road.

The township council has also directed the planning board to undertake a possible redevelopment study for the Snuffy's Pantagis property on Park Avenue.

The township is also preparing a redevelopment plan for its downtown area.

Mayor Al Smith has been an outspoken critic of the state's court-mandated affordable housing plan, saying that it could result in the construction of high-density housing projects that would stress the resources of Scotch Plains.

Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com