Builder submits plans for 56-unit mobile home park at swim club site
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP – County Builders of Warminster is making good on a promise to build a mobile home park on Newtown-Yardley Road after the Newtown Swim Club closes next summer.
Just days before Christmas and a month after the board of supervisors voted 3-2 to oppose plans to build 52 high-density townhouses on the property, the builder delivered a new set of plans to the township, this time for the 56-unit Newtown Mobile Home Park at 761 NewtownYardley Road.
Under current R2 zoning, 30 singlefamily homes, or a 64-plot mobile home park, are permitted on the R2-zoned property, which is located just outside Newtown Borough in the eastern part of the township and is bordered by the Lutheran Church of God’s Love, the Headley Trace townhome development and the Ridings of Newtown, a ment.
The plan, submitted on Dec. 20 with the township, proposes 56 single-wide units measuring 14 by 60 feet each. It would provide 168 parking spaces, including 56 parking lot spaces and 112 driveway spaces. A small tot lot also is proposed at the rear of the property.
The plans have been submitted to the township’s consultants for review. After
single-family develop-
that, they will be scheduled for review by the planning commission and the board of supervisors at public meetings.
Supervisor Ryan Gallagher, when contacted on Jan. 3 about the plan submission, said he “intends to review the plan just as I would any other plan in accordance with our zoning regulations and procedures. We will have our engineer and the planning commission review the plan as well,” he said, “and I look forward to getting their feedback.”
He continued, “If the residents from the neighboring communities would like to offer their thoughts and opinions I would really like to hear what they think about it.
“This plan is really different from the 52-unit townhouse development that the same application had proposed in November,” added Gallagher. “I thought that was a good plan. In my opinion, the townhouses would have blended in well with the surrounding neighborhoods. It also provided for plenty of open space, which was an important concern of mine.”
Originally, club owner David Platt and County Builders submitted plans to build 64 town homes on the site. They subsequently withdrew those plans when the supervisors unanimously voted in July to send the township solicitor to formally oppose a variance request for the project before the Zoning Hearing Board.
Platt and County Builders came back with revised plans for a 52 high-density townhouse development, which also received opposition from the supervisors with members Rob Ciervo, Phil Calabro and Matt Benchener voting to oppose the plan. Supervisors Mike Gallagher and Ryan Gallagher favored the 52-unit plan.
After the split vote, developer Mike Meister, president of County Builders, lambasted the supervisors, declaring that plans would proceed to place mobile homes on the 16.36 acre site.
“I just wanted to show you what’s coming here,” he shouted, waiving the alternate plans.
The mobile home park, said Platt, is “absolutely a reaction” to the supervisors’ opposition to the townhouse plan. “We spent between $50,000 and $60,000 on those plans. We don’t do that as a joke,” he said.
Platt said he has “nothing to do with” the new plans for the mobile home park. “County Builders needs to do what it needs to do to follow through on our agreement of sale,” he said.
Platt and County Builders were seeking the supervisors’ support of a zoning variance, which would have been required to allow the higher density town homes.
“This is a plan that works, this is a plan that the Platts support,” said attorney John VanLuvanee of Eastburn & Gray, P.C., who represents County Builders, Inc. of Warminster which will develop the swim club property.
“Our density is below that of the surrounding areas,” VanLuvanee explained. “The Platts could have built more units if they sold the land years ago when a higher density was allowed.”
The Headley development was built in the 1970s under the higher-density zoning permitted at the time in that section of Newtown Township.
A majority of the supervisors voted to oppose the zoning request, favoring instead single family homes for the site.
“There is no hardship here,” Supervisor Rob Ciervo asserted in November. “If [the supervisors] don’t continue to oppose this we should take our ordinance and throw it in the trash ... it has no use here.”
Supervisor Ryan Gallagher, who voted against sending the solicitor to the zoning board, said that he grew up several hundred yards from the Newtown Swim Club and currently lives in that high-density area.
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“You’re surrounded by homes,” Gallagher added. “This is already a developed area, and you’re talking about having 55 percent of the property open space.”
But Ciervo reiterated that the issue is not necessarily about WUDIfic RU VchRRO RYHUcURZGLnJ.
“We should uphold our zoning because the main issue to our residents is the development of Newtown Township,” he asserted.
Under current zoning, 30 single-family homes would be permitted, something which Ciervo said the developer should instead consider. Supervisor Matthew Benchener agreed. “I think 30 homes could work here,” Benchener said. “This development is going to be here for decades. It’s worth sending our solicitor.”
Supervisor Chairman Mike Gallagher, who also voted against sending the solicitor to the zoning board, said that he would have opposed such a development for a more rural area, such as Eagle Road, but that the swim club is already in “a high density zone.
“We appointed the zoning hearing board and they represent our philosophy,” Gallagher said. “I personally don’t like sending a solicitor.”
Platt told the board in November that he thought building town homes “was the right thing to do.
“We have townhouses on both sides of us,” he said. “To build single family homes doesn’t make sense to me.”
Platt, who served for 13 years on the Bucks County Planning Commission, said there is “no market” right now for single family homes.
“We thought we’d come up with a compromise with 52 units. There was more open space and everyone seemed to be happy,” said Platt.
Platt, who suffers from melanoma, plans to close the swim club at the end of the 2013 summer season. In a letter to residents over the summer, he explained that his decision to shutter the club is based on health reasons.