The Newtown Township Board of Supervisors last week approved preliminary and final land development plan for a 10,000-square-foot daycare facility and a 6,600-square-foot general office/medical office building.
The supervisor voted 4-1 to approve the plan from Durham Investment LP at 413 Durham Road last week. The site is next to the Newtown Township Municipal Center.
Ed Murphy, the attorney for the applicant, explained that the project received conditional use approval from the supervisors a year ago.
“What’s happened in the intervening year is the formal preliminary final land development plans, engineered plans have been prepared, submitted and gone through the various review cycles with your consultants both inside and outside the township,” Murphy said.
The project recently received a favorable recommendation from the township planning commission, bringing it before the board for final approval.
Murphy noted that all review letters are “will comply” items, meaning the developer agrees to address all remaining concerns raised by township consultants.
“Probably most notably because it’s been the principal topic of conversation, we have now since last time we appeared in front of this board received from PennDOT a PennDOT permit for the proposed access ingress and egress on Durham Road,” Murphy said.
The PennDOT permit addresses previous concerns about traffic management at the site.
During public comment, a resident raised concerns about traffic management at the site.
“I’m only here to respectfully request that the board take into account the suggestion we made last back in February regarding the development of the land at 413 Durham Road to time the signals in such a manner to allow a calming effect on the traffic, especially during the peak hours between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.,” the resident said.
The man suggested a traffic signal timing system that would periodically stop traffic in both directions on Durham Road during peak hours to allow safer left turns into and out of the development.
The township engineer explained that a gap study was conducted as part of the application review process.
“We requested that gap study as part of the submission and as part of their resubmission, they did provide that to us and we determined that there was adequate gaps in the traffic there at that point,” the traffic engineer said.
The approval resolution includes several conditions the developer must meet before final plans can be signed and recorded, including payment of fees, stormwater maintenance agreements, and obtaining “will serve” letters from the Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority and Newtown Artesian Water Company for sewer and water service.
One significant hurdle remains before construction can begin.
Murphy acknowledged that the project cannot proceed until it receives sewer capacity allocation, known as EDUs (Equivalent Dwelling Units).
“At present the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority has not allocated any new EDUs of sewer capacity for projects in the borough or the township,” Murphy explained. “But we still have to apply. We need to get on a list called the Connection Management Plan so that as and when sewer capacity is reallocated, we would be in line to hopefully get it.”
When asked how many EDUs the project requires, Murphy said it could range from as few as one to as many as 12 or 13, depending on how the authority calculates the project’s needs.
The developer has provided flow data from comparable daycare centers to demonstrate that actual usage would be lower than what standard models might predict.
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