P&Z Proposes Zoning Rule Changes On Elderly Housing

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have slated a public hearing for next week on some proposed changes to the zoning regulations on elderly housing complexes, which would create a regulatory mechanism to allow a major developer to proceed with its planning for a proposed 171-unit condominium complex in Hawleyville.

The public hearing is scheduled for 7:30 pm, on Thursday, December 2, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

The P&Z’s initiative for such zoning rule changes comes in response to a proposal from Toll Brothers, Inc, a Pennsylvania-based builder, to construct a 171-unit age-restricted, multifamily housing complex at the 50-acre site of a former gravel mine, where two previous P&Z-approved age-restricted, multifamily housing projects never materialized.

Toll Brothers representatives met with P&Z members earlier this month to discuss the development firm’s proposal for a condo complex for people over age 55.

The site is in an EH-10 (Elderly Housing) zone, which permits high-density multifamily residential construction. The project has the working name The Woods at Newtown.

Although the site has a 12-16 Pocono Road address, access to the complex would be provided via a driveway that now serves Maplewood at Newtown at 166 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6). The Maplewood building holds 100 apartments for assisted-living residents and people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Toll Brothers does not own the 50-acre site but would seek to acquire it, provided that certain EH-10 zoning rules are created to allow the type of development that the builder envisions for the property.

The P&Z has created a two-page list of proposed zoning rule changes which would allow the type of condo complex advanced by the developer. The proposed rule changes address topics including: construction density, building height limits, the maximum number of dwellings per building, access to sanitary sewers and public water supplies, and definitions of various types of elderly housing.

Generally, the proposed zoning rule changes would allow taller buildings than now permitted, allow the placement of bedrooms on the upper level of two-story townhouse-style condo units, and add a new category of age-restricted multifamily housing known as “apartments.”

Toll Brothers is proposing a condo complex that would contain five three-story apartment buildings, three of which would hold 22 apartments, and two of which would hold 18 apartments. Some of those buildings would have walkout basements.

Also, the site would have 14 buildings that each would hold four condos. There would be three three-unit condo buildings, and also two two-unit condo buildings. All units would be for sale. Prices have been not been disclosed.

The P&Z’s approval of the proposed EH-10 zoning rule changes would precede Toll Brothers’ submission of an application for a condo complex.

In June 2006, the P&Z approved construction of a 178-unit condo complex known as The Woods at Newtown for the depleted gravel mine, as had been proposed by Bashert Developers, LLC, of New City, in Rockland County, N.Y. That project, however, never materialized.

In September 1998, the P&Z had approved 198 units of age-restricted housing for the site as proposed by a development group known as The Homesteads at Newtown. Although that firm built 12 condos, those units were never occupied and were later demolished.

The Homesteads at Newtown, though, built the adjacent 100-unit elderly housing building, which opened in March 2001, that is now known as Maplewood at Newtown.