The Newtown Township Planning Commission met via ZOOM on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. In attendance and voting were Chairman Allen Fidler, Secretary/Treasurer Mary Donaldson and members Warren Dallas, Craig Deutsch, Joel Raab, Amber Ray and Kierstyn Zolfo. Also in attendance were Solicitor Gerald Schenkman and Planner Mary Stover.

Not all applications and decisions are summarized here. View the video embedded below for the details.

Condition Use Applications:

Five Guys Burgers & Fries (2804 South Eagle Road in the Village at Newtown Shopping Center; where Salad Works is currently located). The motion to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve this application passed 7-0.

The Halal Guys (2820 South Eagle Road in the Village at Newtown Shopping Center; where Melt Shop is currently located).

Also discussed: Wescorp, located at 1 Pheasant Run in Newtown, PA, presented its plan for a reconstruction project and that would "upgrade" two signs - one facing Pheasant Run and one facing Penn Street above the entrance.The motion to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve this application passed 7-0.

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At the May 18, 2021, Newtown Planning Commission (PC) Zoom meeting, Joseph M. Blackburn, Partner with Wisler Pearlstine, presented an overview of a "conditional" use application by the Chop't Creative Salad Company, LLC. The application is for a 2,500 sf Chop't restaurant to be located at 2910 S. Eagle Road in the Village at Newtown Shopping Center.

This use would bring the percent of square footage allocated for restaurant use in the shopping center to about 31%. The total allowable percentage for such use is - believe it or not - 45%! So, there is still significantly more restaurant use allowable.

The focus of the discussion was on the outdoor eating area. 

Listen to the discussion and view the plans...

Falls is considering a zoning change to help revive a stagnant shopping center with a new addition — a Wawa with gas pumps.

Supervisors voted Monday to advertise rezoning a portion of the Fairless Hills Shopping Center at 500 Lincoln Highway from shopping center to highway commercial.

The move could allow for the construction of a 5,500-square-foot Wawa with gas pumps on a 2-acre site currently occupied by an existing restaurant — Arosso, A Touch of Sicily. If approved, the restaurant that sits in the shopping center's parking lot would be demolished and move into a storefront in the center.

Falls attorney Lauren Gallagher said during a meeting Monday that gas pumps could be permitted under a conditional use. 

Even if the zoning is changed, supervisors would not be obligated to approve the Wawa, Gallagher said.

A Toll Brothers proposal to put 45 single-family homes at the corner of Durham Road (Route 413) and Twining Bridge Road is not a big hit with the Newtown Township supervisors or nearby residents.

At the end of a lengthy recent conditional use hearing during which several residents expressed concerns with the development, the matter failed to draw a motion from any of the five township supervisors.

Toll has an agreement to buy a 158-acre unused portion of the 328-acre All Saints Cemetery from the Philadelphia Archdiocese. It’s zoned conservation management.

Gregg Adelman, the local attorney representing Toll Brothers, said the proposed project is less dense than many nearby developments and much less dense than the 170 homes Toll had previously planned for the site.

He added only about 36 acres of the land would have houses and the rest would remain open space, with an 88-acre portion of open space being offered to the township if officials wanted it.

Only about 7% of the property would end up as impervious surface, much less than the 20% allowed under the applicable ordinance, Adelman said.

None of his points seemed to impress nearby residents.

“This development would take away all I bought into when I purchased my property and cause safety problems for everyone,” said Joe McAtee, who lives on Twining Bridge Road.

McAtee and other residents also objected to the proposed development having both its accesses on Twining Bridge Road and the added traffic they said it would mean for the road.

“Twining Bridge Road is already so dangerous,” one woman said. “You can’t walk on that street now without worrying whether you will be killed.”

Supervisor John Mack expressed reservations about the proposal.

“It seems like a contradiction to have a development like this in a conservation management district,” he said. “Newtown Township is very developed as it is.”

But Adelman responded the proposal “achieves the goals and purposes of the CM district as currently zoned.”

 At the December 11, 2019, Newtown Board of Supervisors meeting, several residents commented that they were not adequately notified by Toll Brothers of the conditional use hearing for a proposal to construct a cluster of 41 single-family homes on a 152-acre parcel at Rt. 413 and Twining Bridge Road (read "Toll Brothers Submits New Proposal For Rt. 413 Property" https://patch.com/pennsylvania/newtown-pa/toll-brothers-submits-new-proposal-rt-413-property See the plan here). They also did not realize that the hearing would be continued at a later date in January, 2020.

Resident Joseph Mcatee voiced concern about the possibility that the continuance would not be advertised. "The problem with that is it almost looks like the applicant decided that instead of having the community know about the meeting, they could continue it [and] not have it advertised," said Mcatee. "It just doesn't sound like a good community service," he noted.

"There's a little bit of bad faith here," said Eric Pomerantz. "They [Toll Bros] never came back to us …to work out the issues" as promised regarding the first proposal.

See a video clip of the "hearing" with comments from residents here.

[UPDATE: “Toll Bros Trash Original Plan for 41 "Luxury" Homes That Included a "Community Septic Field." Submits a New Plan with Connection to Public Sewers.”; http://sco.lt/7O5HG4]