Dorney Park Expands By 6.75 Acres

Cedar Fair has announced plans to purchase and additional 6.75 acres of land adjacent to Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom. The land, which is located next to the park's overflow parking lot, has sat undeveloped for over a decade.

Purchase area in yellow 

At one time home to a planned Vietnam memorial, the parcel was later purchased by a local developer that planned an office building on the site.  The down economy ruined those plans, and eventually it went back up for sale by the County.  Cedar Fair has made a bid of $2.75 million, with a final sale subject to a vote by the commissioners. 

So now that Dorney has a little more breathing room, what will they do with the space?  Well, it's pretty disconnected from park proper, so I'm going to go with the exotic guess of parking.  A press release from Cedar Fair states that "this land acquisition will enable the Company to continue enhancing the guest experience at the park through the introduction of new rides and attractions, future park development and the expansion of parking facilities."

Orange is the new land, yellow is open, flat space now used as overflow parking

They do mention rides, but they do not mention them in that area.  Adding parking on the new land could allow current parking to be absorbed into the park, especially back behind Steel Force's station and beyond where Laser was.  A lot of that land is flat, but kept open for parking use on busy summer days.

This could be the final step the park needs in order to do a massive re-think of their parking lots in general, something that's been on slow-bake for years now.  Back in 2006 I mentioned one of the old plans here on NPN. Who knows if that's still desired now, or if another plan is in place.

Still, it's exciting to see Cedar Fair still interested in developing the park long term, after at least what enthusiasts would call a less than exciting past few years!