Developer Proposes Moving Newtown Farmhouse, Making It An Office Building

The developer who has asked the township for permission to tear down an 1840s farmhouse on Upper Silver Lake Road has offered up another plan for the structure—move it to Newtown-Yardley Road, where it will become an office building.

McGrath Homes, which is nearing completion of its Villas at Newtown development, originally asked to tear down the farmhouse and replace it with a dozen villas. Restoration of the farmhouse was a condition of approval when McGrath received the go-ahead to construct the 172-unit development back in 2006.

However, the board and the community are split on what should happen to the farmhouse. The board has suggested the developer come forward with an alternative plan.

Representatives for McGrath offered up their preference for an alternative during a Newtown Township Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday.

McGrath is now proposing to move the farmhouse to the former Newtown Swim Club on Newtown-Yardley Road, where developer Mike Meister would lease it for office space at his Walden Square community now under construction.

Several board members have expressed their disapproval of that plan.

In an email to Patch, Supervisor Jen Dix said the plan would not only take away open space from Villas of Newtown, where additional villas would be built after the house was moved, but now also at Walden Square, where there would be a parking lot and office building not part of the original plan.

According to a report by the Newtown Advance, Supervisor Phil Calabra is also critical of the idea.

A majority of residents in the 55-plus Villas at Newtown community support tearing down or moving the farmhouse. However, other township residents have come forward with strong opposition to demolishing it.