Newtown Borough Council gives solicitor go ahead to continue negotiating property transfer to Steeple View redevelopment project

NEWTOWN BOROUGH – The borough council gave its solicitor the go ahead Wednesday night to continue negotiating a three-party agreement that would transfer borough property at 10 Centre Avenue to the Steeple View redevelopment project in exchange for public easements.

In casting the 4-1 vote with councilor Larry Auerweck dissenting, the majority of council said it likes the vision developer Allan Smith has for property, including a creek walk and a town square, but said before signing off it would first need to see some hard facts and figures, including an appraisal of what the borough would be getting in return.

Smith is moving forward with plans to develop the former Stockburger site on South State Street with seven mixed use retail/residential buildings and a multi-level parking garage. He’d like to extend the Steeple View development northward to include the State Store property located off of Centre Avenue and across the street from The First National Bank of Newtown.

To make that happen, Smith would need property now owned by the borough and used as municipal parking in front of the State Store building.

The three-party agreement would allow the borough to donate the land to the Heritage Conservancy, which would then transfer it to Steeple View in exchange for public easements for the piazza/town square and a 1,425 foot greenway/creek walk. The developer would be responsible for the maintenance of both public improvements.

The land transfer would allow Smith to move forward with plans to demolish the State Store building, construct two new buildings, reconfigure the site with a public square, and build a new road linking Centre Avenue with South State Street at the former Stockburger showroom site.

The new buildings housing retail on the first floor and office uses upstairs would overlook a public square, or piazza, that could be used as a public gathering place for the town.

In addition, the plan includes the creation of a path/walk along the Newtown Creek, stretching more than 1,400 feet from the public square southward to a wetlands area at the southern terminus of the project site.

In opening the discussion, Council President Bob Walker asked members to keep in mind the revenue benefit the redevelopment project holds for the borough.

“When I look at the plan put forth by Steeple View, in all phases, there is revenue opportunity from a real estate standpoint ... There’s an opportunity for Earned Income Tax .. Local Service Tax revenues would be increased. When you add all those up, it could be meaningful money to the borough’s ability to manage its future expenses,” he said.

“When you’re thinking about this, please bear that in mind because it’s part of our responsibility to come up with ways to fund the borough other than tax increases that might be looming out there based on rising costs or whatever else it might be,” he said.

In addition, Walker said the development would serve to help revitalize the State Street business district. “It would create an environment where Newtown Borough could become a destination environment. That would go a long way to help property and business owners.”

In saying that, Walker said there needs to be some kind of mechanism built into the agreement that gives the borough an out if it there’s a glitch.

“How does the borough get it back?” he asked. “We have to be responsible enough to say we might need an exit strategy out of this agreement if something happens.”

Solicitor William Bolla said it wouldn’t be a problem crafting a reversion clause in the agreement.

“Psychologically, of course we want this, but what are we committing to?” asked Councilor Perry Warren during a discussion among the councilors.

“I’d liked to see the financials,” he said. “We had an appraisal made of the parking lot, but I’d like to see an appraisal of the value of what’s going to be swapped for it. We are stewards of this public property and we need to know what those numbers are.”

Councilors said they’d also like to see economic and traffic impact studies of the project completed to give them a better understanding of the impact the project will have, both in terms of traffic and financially.

Councilor Bob King pressed for the traffic study, raising concern over the potential for congestion and the development’s impact on the Centre Avenue Bridge.

King also spoke about the concept of a creek walk and made a suggestion of moving a stone barn - now located on the former Stockburger property - to a nearby wetlands area and creating a nature center area at the southern terminus of the walk.

“I can see value there,” said King. “If you get that to work out, it would be great.”

Councilor Tara Grunde-McLaughlin supported the idea of an economic impact study and recommended the town square and its potential economic impact be included in the study parameters.

“It speaks to ways you bring people into town,” she said. “People come in, they get something to eat, then they stay, they sit, and then they shop and spend more money in Newtown. It becomes a place to gather, to be and it improves the quality of life for people in Newtown and it improves Newtown as a destination for people who are going to come in and help our businesses thrive and help some of our empty storefronts perhaps fill.”

In addition, she said it would “add to that sense of community having a place that could become a third place … You have your home, your work and that third place where you go, where you see people and connect. Right now it’s just an intersection – a place to park and go in and out,” she said.

During public comment, a State Street business owner expressed reservations with the plan and its potential impact on businesses that back up to the site and who rely on the public lot at 10 Centre for customer parking.

He warned that if the plan were to go through, it could make the properties less rentable.

“Right now we have the advantage of the public lot so that when the limited parking behind our buildings is used up, people count on using the public lot for their customers,” he said. “A lot of that will go away and be moved.”

Walker said a solution would be to have employees park their cars at the new parking garage and using the private lots behind their buildings for customer parking. “There are ways to solve these challenges if you think through the process so customers aren’t inconvenienced,” he said.

Another business owner, Becky Betz, who runs a deli on South State Street, said she would welcome the new development and the additional parking it would bring to the borough. “It can only help us,” she said.

According to Smith, while the borough would be losing the lot on Centre, there will be a net gain of 150 parking spaces in the borough with the Steeple View redevelopment project.

Betz compared the project to the development of Princeton’s Palmer Square, designed by the same architect Smith is using for Steeple View. “It was designed so it wouldn’t ignore, it would enhance and flow into the Main Street and the existing businesses. And I think it accomplished that. When you go to Princeton, you just don’t go to Palmer Square. You go all around.”

The plan also has the endorsement of owner David Witchell, who encouraged Smith to take a look at the High Line project in New York City.

“This could be something unlike anything anywhere around here,” he said. “And I think people would come to it simply to enjoy it. And it will bring things to the town. It’s incredibly insightful and I have a strong affinity for what you’re doing with it,” he told Smith.

“I know there are concerns with parking and other issues, but change is necessary and it’s an integral part of progression and prosperity,” said Witchell. “If this town is to prosper and flourish, changes like this have to occur. We have to be sensitive to how we do it but they have to occur. I applaud you for this vision. I think it’s beautiful.”

Borough resident Jon Guy said while he shares Smith’s “enthusiasm for the vision” of Steeple View, he said the “fatal flaw” in the development of the property is traffic flow and spoke in favor of a comprehensive traffic study.

“We really need to have an open, honest review of how traffic should flow through this property and around it because it is a weird shaped property with constraints all around it – the bridge on Centre Avenue, the multiple lights along State Street and limitations at the Stockburger site entrance in terms of in and out. I’m really concerned in terms of not just cars flowing, but in terms of services and trucks.”

Former Newtown Borough Council President Julia Woldorf voiced support for the project and the idea of a creek walk, calling it an “incredible opportunity for the borough.

“The borough has struggled for years and years with the fact that a majority of the banks along the Newtown Creek are privately owned,” she said. “It makes it extremely difficult for the borough to even look at acquiring easements to have public access to the waterway in any shape or form. To not jump at this opportunity to get a large piece of that greenway open for public use would be unfortunate,” she said.

After listening to the conversation and public comment, Smith said council needs to do “all the due diligence, all the deliberation,” but it also must move “as deliberately, but as quickly as it can to try and avoid the Damocles sword of the interest rate.

“I have to tell you if we spend two more years on this and interest rates go way up we won’t have to worry about any of this stuff because it just won’t work anymore,” said Smith.

“We’re at a historic opportunity where interest rates are at an all-time low and this is all being driven by borrowing money. If those rates double, this just won’t happen. It will be a completely different deal,” he said.

Source: Bucks Local News