Steeple View Conditional Use Decision Tabled In Newtown Borough

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The Newtown Borough Council on Tuesday tabled a key vote until next week on the mixed-use Steeple View redevelopment project.

The council has scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday, Sept. 20 beginning at 7 p.m. at the Newtown Borough Hall to render its decision on a conditional use request from the developer that would allow for shared-use parking between Steeple View Phase 2 and the Stocking Works.

Developer Allen Smith is seeking conditional use to meet the parking requirements for phase two of his Steeple View redevelopment project, which proposes seven new multi-story buildings (four residential and three mixed-use residential, restaurant, and retail uses) on nearly nine acres of land along with the development of a public piazza on Centre Avenue and a public Creek Walk along the Newtown Creek.

The project site extends from Centre Avenue (across from the First National Bank’s Operations Center) south to the new Wine and Spirits store, which was phase one of the Steeple View project.

While Smith's latest revised plan calls for a less intense project than what was approved in 2015, with the elimination of a proposed parking garage the plan comes up short on parking without the shared-use parking element.

Smith's attorney Tim Duffy said that the parking deficit could be accommodated with the shared parking arrangement at Stocking Works and the approval of the conditional use application.

In August, during a conditional use hearing before council, Smith testified that without the shared parking element, "the project won't work. It cannot," he said. "You have to understand that the creek walk, the bridge, the piazza have to be paid for. If we don't have enough units we don't have enough money to pay for these public improvements."

During public comment at Tuesday’s borough council meeting Smith’s request for a conditional use found few takers.

Former councilor Julia Woldorf questioned where the existing 55 public parking spaces now located in the 10 Centre Avenue lot would be located under Smith’s plan.

“The applicant committed to providing those spaces close to their current location as part of the conditional use approval in 2015. However, the borough’s 55 spaces have not been identified on any current plan,” she said.

“For many years I have looked forward to the Steeple View development as a positive improvement to the town,” she said. “Unfortunately the proposed parking plan will not be in the borough’s best interest.”

Mark Craig, the chairman of the planning commission, responded to comments made at the August hearing that inferred that a vote on the conditional use is a vote on Steeple View.

“As a planning commission, we were unanimous in recommending against the conditional use application but we’re positive on Steeple View,” said Craig. “We’ve always been positive on Steeple View. We have always been positive about Steeple View because it can be a great contributing element to our community,” he said.

The planning commission, he said, is concerned with on-site parking. “And that’s something we don’t have an awful lot of in this development. In a nutshell, that’s the issue,” he said.

“Should we grant this conditional use, 100 percent of the non-residential parking will be off-site,” he said. “We can further avoid complicating the issue by assuring we have adequate on-site parking.”