Newtown Municipal Authority To Consider Sale Of Lower Silver Lake Road Property

NEWTOWN, PA — The Newtown, Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority will meet in special session this week to consider selling a 17.5-acre property on Lower Silver Lake Road, originally proposed for a future sewer treatment plant.

At its July meeting, the authority tabled action on the proposed sale and later scheduled a special meeting for July 28 beginning at 2 p.m. to consider a motion to sell the property or to consider a letter of intent to sell

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The authority had condemned the property in 2024 with the idea of building its own sewer plant at the site to contain future sewer rate hikes, which are forecast to impact its ratepayers well into the future as a wholesale customer of the Bucks County Water & Sewer Authority.

Residents living near the site of the treatment plant in neighboring Middletown Township, however, protested plans for the plant, eventually forcing the authority to halt planning for the proposed facility a year ago. The authority eventually dropped its plans altogether after it lost the support of the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors.

Under the eminent domain law, the authority was obligated to offer the land back to the original owners for $11.5 million, the price the authority paid to acquire the land. The former owners had 90 days to respond to the authority's offer, which expired without a response, the authority confirmed in June.

The former owners subsequently filed for damages totaling $690,000, a motion that was quashed by a judge at the request of the authority.

After acquiring the land, the authority raised rates by 47 percent, 26 percent of which was to fund the acquisition of the property.

The board, which is made up of appointed representatives from Newtown Borough and Newtown Township, has made no decisions on what it would do with the proceeds from a sale of the property.

The property had initially been proposed by KRE for a 245-unit apartment building complex. KRE was in the process of challenging the validity of the township's zoning ordinance when the authority began condemnation proceedings to acquire the property.

The Newtown, Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority (NBCJMA) serves 9,000 sanitary sewer customers in Newtown Township and Newtown Borough. The system consists of 101 miles of gravity sewers, 2,630 manholes and eight metering sites. It maintains five wastewater pumping stations and more than 50 easements.