Quoting Julia: "When I first heard about a potential traditional neighborhood development in the center of Newtown Borough, which later became known as Steeple View, I was excited by the possibilities it offered to reinvigorate the business district and address the ongoing lack of parking in town. However, the current plan no longer provides many of the benefits originally touted, and will make the borough’s parking problem worse.
"In a 5–1 vote on Sept. 20, Newtown Borough Council granted conditional use approval for a controversial shared parking plan, permitting up to 40% of the required parking for the Steeple View development to be accommodated remotely at the Stocking Works, 1/4 mile south on State Street. By its own calculations, the developer intends to provide only a few parking spaces onsite at Steeple View beyond those required for the residential units planned.
"A major principle of conditional use approval is that a proposal be in the best interests of the borough, and be a benefit to the community and to the public welfare. Eliminating a popular, heavily used, convenient public parking facility is none of these things. State Street businesses will experience that loss quickly, according to the most recent plans.
"For almost 14 years, I had been one of this project’s strongest supporters. But within the past year and a half, I, along with many Newtown residents, have come to realize that, in its current form, and especially with the approved parking plan, Steeple View no longer offers the benefits to the public and business community promoted by the developer."
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Mystery Takes a Twist
On November 4, 2023, I took a hike up the LDR Trail to Yorkshire Drive to see if there was any further work involving the stop sign at that location. Lo and Behold! The sign was back up as shown in the photo: https://www.johnmacknewtown.info/blog/?viewDetailed=202310271142#twist
However, it is now about two feet south of its original location – closer to Yorkshire Drive. A traffic cone covers the hole left behind where the short piece of the pole was sticking up out of the ground.
I noticed that the pole was secured to this short buried piece by nuts and bolts (see insert). This leads me to believe that the pole was NOT originally sawed off as surmised by me and the resident who reported this to me! Several other signs along the trail were also secured this way. I’m not sure this is the most secure method to ensure that these signs stay put.
According to the November 2, 2023, Engineer’s Report “The Contractor has begun addressing punchlist items on 10/27/2023. RVE [the township engineering firm] is currently inspecting the work performed.” It is still not confirmed who has done this work on the Yorkshire stop sign!
Meanwhile, this and other new stop signs on LDR remain covered. Why??? Stay tuned!