Newtown Residents Dissatisfied With Toll Brothers

At the December 11, 2019, Newtown Board of Supervisors meeting, several residents commented that they were not adequately notified by Toll Brothers of the conditional use hearing for a proposal to construct a cluster of 41 single-family homes on a 152-acre parcel at Rt. 413 and Twining Bridge Road (read "Toll Brothers Submits New Proposal For Rt. 413 Property" and see plan below). They also did not realize that the hearing would be continued at a later date in January, 2020. The following is a video clip of the "hearing" with comments from residents.

Township Solicitor Dave Sander explained that as required by the Municipal Planning Code, upon receipt of the application, the Township advertised in the newspaper that a hearing regarding the application would be held on December 11, 2019. Subsequently, Toll Brothers extended the deadline for the hearing until January 31, 2020. Consequently, the Newtown BOS opened the conditional use hearing but immediately voted to continue the hearing at the scheduled January 22, 2020 BOS meeting. Mr. Sander noted that the Township does not have to re-advertise the hearing’s new date.

The Plan

Although the continuance was noted in an article published in the Newtown Patch on December 9, 2019 (read “Hearing For Newtown Toll Brothers Development To Be Continued”) and and I posted about it on Twitter (see tweet below), Twining Bridge Road resident Joseph Mcatee said he “did not get a notification that [the hearing] would be continued.”

Mcatee voiced concern about the possibility that the continuance would not be advertised. “The problem with that is it almost looks like the applicant decided that instead of having the community know about the meeting, they could continue it [and] not have it advertised,” said Mcatee. “It just doesn’t sound like a good community service,” he noted.

Eric Pomerantz of Dorchester Lane noted that he did not receive a letter from Toll Bros about the December 11, 2019, hearing date. He also said that previously the Board required that Toll notify not only residents within 500 feet, but also residents in other nearby communities. This was in regard to a previous plan to build 173 homes on the property (read “Toll Brothers Twining Bridge Road Proposal”). “There’s a little bit of bad faith here,” said Mr. Pomerantz. “They [Toll Bros] never came back to us …to work out the issues” as promised regarding the first proposal. “That’s what you need to understand,” he said.

New Notices to Be Sent

BOS Chair Phil Calabro noted that the new date could be posted “on the television” and also on the township website. He hoped that would be adequate notification. However, Mcatee suggested that a new notice be sent out by mail and also posted to the Patch and print newspapers. He suggested that Toll Brothers pay for this.

Mr. Sander opined that if Toll Brothers did not send notices to residents within 500 feet of the property as required by law, then the cost of sending out new notices should be paid by the applicant. On the other hand, if notices were sent, then any new notices would have to be paid by the Township, according to Mr. Sander. As more citizens came forward and also complained (see video), the BOS ultimately decided that residents will receive a new written notice either way.

There Needs To Be A Better Way!

There was much discussion about "certified mail" and newspaper ads as the usual means by which residents are notified about hearings. Several residents claimed they never received any mail. Even if they did they would have to go to the post office to sign for it and receive the letter.

As for ads in the newspaper - you would have to be a very vigilant citizen to search for those ads in the classified sections of various local newspapers used by Newtown to advertise special meetings. Sometimes ads appear in the Bucks County Courier Times (a daily) and sometimes in other publications such as the Advance.

A better solution would be for the Township to push out notifications of meetings via a mobile app such as Savvy Citizen. As supervisor, I have been a strong advocate for the Township to subscribe to this service. At the December 11 meeting, I noted that the estimated cost for this service is $2,241 annually, plus a one-time marketing, setup fee of $600 for a total of $2,841.

To cover the cost, Savvy Citizen offers a sponsorship program whereby a local business can pay for Newtown’s Savvy Citizen subscription and in return receive a small clickable ad on notifications sent to residents. I mentioned that he spoke to the owner of at least one local business - Harvest Seasonal Grill and Wine Bar - who said: "This is interesting and depending on final terms and costs Harvest Seasonal Grill would look to support and sponsor this".

With Savvy the Township can push information about hearings and other meetings to residents and be assured it is received in a timely fashion -- something not possible with the website, postal mail, newspaper ads, or with social media such as Twitter, Facebook, or Nextdoor.