Police Commission Endorses Drive-Up Bank Facility

By Andrew Gorosko

The Police Commission, acting as the borough’s traffic authority, has endorsed a developer’s proposal to build drive-up bank teller facilities at a commercial complex planned for the prominent corner of Church Hill Road and Queen Street.

 Police Commission members on September 7 endorsed Church Hill & Queen, LLC’s proposal to build facilities on the southwestern section of the 2.1-acre site that would contain two drive-up teller stations and one drive-up automatic teller machine.

Developer Peter Wiehl explained that the three-lane facility would be a remote station located in the commercial complex’s parking lot, physically separate from the bank that would operate there. Motorists and tellers would exchange bank documents via pneumatic tubes buried beneath the complex’s parking lot.

Mr Wiehl declined to disclose the name of the bank that would locate in the complex, other than to say it is a bank which does not now do business in Newtown. The bank would be located in a building on Church Hill Road, near its corner with Queen Street.  The complex is tentatively named The Shoppes at Church Hill and Queen.

In May, Borough Zoning Commission members approved plans to redevelop the prominent long-vacant corner of Church Hill Road and Queen Street with a mixed-use, three-building commercial complex, including retail and office space. Church Hill & Queen, LLC, plans to build 17,154 square feet of commercial space on the site.

A one-story 6,338-square-foot building would be built at 14 Church Hill Road, in the area where Village Texaco formerly stood.

Two two-story buildings, each of which would contain 5,408 square feet of space, would flank the  corner of Church Hill Road and Queen Street, in the area where The White Birch Inn formerly was located.

Each of the two two-story buildings would have only a partial second story. Overall, the complex would contain 13,986 square feet of retail space and 3,168 square feet of office space. The ground-level spaces would have a general retail use. The second stories would be reserved for offices. The mustard-colored structures would be built in a modern version of the Georgian style.

The project would be served by a common parking lot located behind the three buildings, which would have space for more than 80 vehicles.

Because the remote bank teller station alters the site plan of the complex that was approved in May, Mr Wiehl is seeking revised approvals for the project. Besides the Police Commission, he will seek an endorsement from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) and a formal approval from the borough zoners.

Mr Wiehl said he expects the complex will house between nine and 11 tenants when fully occupied.

So far, Church Hill & Queen, LLC, has informally lined up between one-third and one-half of the tenants that would occupy the complex, he said. The bank is viewed as the prime tenant of the project, he said. The developer is seeking national, regional, and local tenants to occupy the facility, he said.

The firm hopes to begin construction work by next spring, he said. Construction is expected to take nine to 12 months to complete.

The complex is one of the first projects to be subject to the Borough Zoning Commission’s Village District zoning regulations, which seek to have new commercial construction in the borough be in “aesthetic harmony” with existing architecture.