A Newtown Township resident has launched an online petition drive against a proposal to build a Chick-Fil-A restaurant on the east side of the township.
Newtown Equities, LLC, has filed a zoning application with the township to build a 6,000-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru at the former site of the TD Bank at 98 Upper Silver Lake Road near its intersection with Newtown-Yardley Road.
[Read “Chick-fil-A Wants to Set Up Shop at Intersection of NT-Yardley Rd and #NewtownPA Bypass”; https://sco.lt/5L9k7U]
The property is diagonally across the Newtown Bypass from the site of the new Wawa convenience store and gas station approved by the township last year through a settlement agreement.
Newtown Equities has not formally presented its plan at a township meeting. It had been scheduled to appear before the planning commission on April 16, but several hours before the meeting asked to be removed from the agenda.
[Read “Chick-fil-A CANCELS presentation before the #NewtownPA Planning Commission Meeting”; https://sco.lt/6k72zw]
Donna Serdula, a resident of the 50-home Wiltshire Walk development, which is located within 500 feet of the site of the proposed restaurant, said she's "deeply concerned" by the proposal.
So much so that she launched an online petition drive this week and said she's working to organize her neighbors in opposition to the plan.
“STOP Zoning Changes Allowing Chick-fil-A Construction in Newtown” petition.
"What people don't realize is that this proposed Chick-Fil-A is not on the Newtown Bypass. It's on Newtown-Yardley Road and Upper Silver Lake Road. And Newtown-Yardley Road can't handle the existing traffic. In the morning, you're already sitting through two or three lights to get to the bypass. If there's a Chick-Fil-A there, you're not even going to be able to make a left onto the bypass. It's going to become impossible.
"And we don't even have the Wawa yet," added Serdula. "On top of that, the township is working to change the zoning of the Newtown Business Commons to bring in different types of uses to support the local businesses. That's going to bring in traffic.
"Chick-Fil-A doesn't want to build there because they want to support the community," Serdula said. "They already have a Chick-Fil-A a few miles away. They're building there because they want to pull in business from I-295 and from the drivers getting gas at the Wawa," she said.
Serdula said the township and its residents need to start thinking seriously about what they'd like Newtown to be - a quiet, residential community or a traffic nightmare.
"Tice said his mother recovered from the accident, but he’d like to see some steps taken to improve pedestrian safety at the intersection so it doesn’t happen again to her or anyone else. He is suggesting extending the amount of time for pedestrians to cross Buck Road, installation of a camera system to catch drivers failing to yield to pedestrians, and increased traffic calming measures."
Meanwhile, back on 18 July 2023, Alexandra Tice emailed the Newtown Township Manager askin if it "would it be possible to add a few more seconds to the crossover option during programming of the new hardware? As it was before, the 10 second times to cross a 4-lane highway/intersection were terrible, so increasing the seconds to be at least 1/2 minute would be awesome and safe for everyone!"
For more on that read: