Newtown Township
Planning Commission Minutes
January 02, 2001
MINUTES OF 1/2/01: Mr. Kester moved to approve the minutes of 1/2/01 with one correction: on page 3, the Sycamore Street Committee liaisons are Mr. Lombardi, Mr. Mendicino and Mrs. Doorley. The motion was seconded by Mr. Baldwin and passed unanimously with Dr. Kelly abstaining.
The
Newtown Township Planning Commission met on Tuesday, January 2, 2001, in the
Township meeting room at 8:45 PM. In
attendance were: Chairperson Karen Doorley, members Allen Fidler, Paul Kester,
James Baldwin, Vince Lombardi, Frank Mendicino, and Jack Bowen. Also in attendance were: Township Planner
Mike Frank, Township Engineers Bob Larason and Jeff L’Amoreaux, and Public
Works Director Tom Harwood.
Chairperson
Karen Doorley called the meeting to order at 8:45 PM.
MINUTES OF 12/19/00: Mr. Fidler moved to approve the
minutes of 12/19/00; the motion was seconded by Mr. Baldwin and passed
unanimously.
REORGANIZATION:
CHAIRPERSON: Mr. Lombardi moved to elect
Karen Doorley Chairperson for 2001; the motion was seconded by Mr. Kester and
passed unanimously.
VICE CHAIRPERSON: Mr. Lombardi moved to elect Allen Fidler Vice Chairperson for 2001; the
motion was seconded by Mr. Kester and passed unanimously.
SECRETARY: Mrs. Doorley moved to elect
Vince Lombardi Secretary for 2001; the motion was seconded by Mr. Fidler and
passed unanimously.
SCHEDULE: Mr. Lombardi moved to
cancel the scheduled meeting for 11/6/01 unless it is necessary, and to cancel
the scheduled meeting on 5/15/01; if necessary, an additional meeting will be
scheduled on 5/29/01. The motion was
seconded by Mr. Kester and passed unanimously.
TRAFFIC ENGINEER’S REPORT:
STOOPVILLE AND LINTON HILL
ROADS: Mr. L’Amoreaux distributed a draft letter to
the Manager of Upper Makefield Township, proposing a four-way stop sign at this
intersection and asking for Upper Makefield’s concurrence. He noted that the letter should mention
blinking red warning lights as well.
Mr. Kester moved to
authorize the Township Engineer to send the draft letter, adding blinking red
warning lights to the proposed traffic improvements. The motion was seconded by Mr. Baldwin and passed unanimously.
BYPASS WIDENING: Mr. L’Amoreaux reported that the bid opening for this work will
be in 2002. He stated that the work
should not interfere with the installation of the Closed Loop System.
Mr.
Mendicino stated his concern that, if the ramp from the Bypass to I-95 is not
built, the Closed Loop System will simply get traffic to that point more
quickly and create long lines. He asked
if the timing of the signal could be set up to give Newtown Township traffic
more time to get through the intersection.
Mr. L’Amoreaux said the timing is determined according to the volume of
traffic. He will check the grant
proposal regarding who controls the setting.
REVIEWS:
CONDITIONAL USE -
BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO - NEWTOWN SHOPPING CENTER - TMP# 29-3-12-1 & 29-3-24: Postponed to the next meeting due to the illness of the
applicant’s representative.
CONDITIONAL USE - 413 OFFICE
CENTER - DURHAM ROAD (ROUTE 413) - TMP# 29-3-34: Attorney Tom Heckler, Engineer Wayne Johnson, Paul Allen and
several other representatives were present to discuss the proposal for a two
building office development with 32,000 square feet of D-1, Professional Office
Use, and 8,000 square feet of D-2, Medical Office Use. The property is in the PS-2 Professional
Service District. Mr. Heckler explained
that the official name of the applicant is now Autumn Leaf Development, Incorporated,
and the address is 1181 Oxford Valley Road, Yardley. He stated that the applicant was expecting to discuss the sketch
plan with the Planning Commission tonight, as well as the conditional use
application.
Mr.
Johnson displayed the sketch plan for the proposed office development, which is
on an 11 acre parcel. He said there
will be a single access onto Route 413, and the plan currently meets all ordinance
requirements for D-1 and D-2 uses. He
stated that the applicants recently met with Heritage Conservancy and Carroll
Engineering and discussed linking their property and the one to the north (TMP#
29-3-35), with a single access to Route 413.
The sketch plan showed a possible link to the property to the south
(TMP# 29-3-33-1) through the parking area; however, the present owners of this property
have not proposed any development plans.
Mr. Johnson said that if that link is built the applicants will probably
seek a variance to allow 9’ X 18’ parking spaces, since some spaces will be
lost.
Mr.
Lombardi said that his understanding was that a Township road adjacent and
parallel to Route 413 was envisioned to link the three properties along Durham
Road. He asked if it is possible to require
other landowners to link to a private access road. Mr. Heckler agreed to discuss this question with the Township
Solicitor.
Mr.
Frank stated that the easement for a link to the property on the south should
not go through a parking area. He
suggested that the plan might be revised to move the buildings and parking area
back to allow for an access road across the front, closer to Route 413. Mr. Larason said that an access road too
close to Route 413 might cause some traffic problems for vehicles coming in
from Route 413.
Mr.
Mendicino stated he felt the building does not have enough parking spaces for
the medical office use, especially if the medical offices expand their
practices in the future. Mr. Harwood
advised that the Codes Office monitors whether sufficient parking is provided
as each user comes into the building.
Several Commission members said they would prefer to see all the medical
office uses in one building.
Mr.
Fidler said he will abstain on any vote concerning this application as he has a
banking relationship with the applicant.
Mr. Mendicino moved to table
this conditional use application to allow the applicant to discuss with the
Solicitor the best way to link these three properties. The applicant also agrees to grant an extension
of the application. The motion was
seconded by Mr. Baldwin and passed unanimously with Mr. Fidler abstaining.
Mr.
Heckler asked if he was correct in assuming that the applicants need to explore
moving the buildings further back from Route 413; Mr. Lombardi responded that
they should. Mr. Kester added that he
would like to see the medical uses designated for only one of the
buildings. Mr. Mendicino said he would
like to see the office layouts. Mr.
Heckler responded that the applicants plan to build out the space for each
tenant, so he doubted he could provide layouts at this point.
SUBCOMMITTEE AND LIAISON
APPOINTMENTS FOR 2001:
a.
BOARD
OF SUPERVISORS: Mr. Mendicino will
continue to provide liaison. He
mentioned that a series of “visioning” meetings has been scheduled by the Joint
Downtown Newtown Corporation, and that Planning Commission members might want
to attend some or all of the meetings.
More information about the meetings will be in the next Planning
Commission packet.
b.
JOINT
PLANNING COMMISSION: Mr. Kester and Mr.
Bowen agreed to continue.
c.
JOINT
ZONING COUNCIL: No representative.
d.
SYCAMORE
STREET COMMITTEE: Mr. Lombardi, Mr.
Mendicino and Mr. Fidler will continue to serve.
e.
HISTORIC
ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD: Mr. Baldwin will continue to serve.
f.
RECREATION
BOARD: Mr. Baldwin will continue to
serve.
g.
TRAIL
COMMITTEE: Mrs. Doorley, Mrs. Beasley
and Mr. Baldwin will continue to serve.
h.
PARK
& OPEN SPACE COMMITTEE: Mrs. Beasley will continue to serve.
i.
COMMUNITY
CENTER COMMITTEE: Mr. Fidler and Mrs.
Beasley will continue to serve.
j.
PLAN
EXPIRATIONS: None to be addressed.
CORRESPONDENCE: None.
OLD BUSINESS: None.
NEW BUSINESS:
VIDEO: Mr. Kester agreed to review a video on the River Keeper.
GENERAL DISCUSSION: None.
ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Baldwin moved to adjourn. With no objections, the meeting was adjourned at 10:20 PM.
RESPECTFULLY
SUBMITTED,
______________________________
Gretta
Stone, Recording Secretary