STEVE SHERMAN
Chipotle could be on its way to Newtown Township.
If Chipotle’s plans are approved by the township’s Board of Supervisors, the eatery will sit adjacent to Starbucks, which plans to add a third location in Newtown – this one with drive-through service – to the area landscape.
The supervisors announced that Chipotle will be on the agenda at its next board meeting, March 13.
The Mexican grill and tacoria is in the process of applying for a Conditional Use Permit at 2930 South Eagle Road – the southwest corner of Eagle and Durham roads in the Village at Newtown West shopping center.
According to Planning Commission representative Peggy Driscoll, Chipotle has applied for conditional use of an eatery and drive-through that would operate seven days a week from 10:45 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Deliveries would be made three times a week from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. and the restaurant would employ from six to 10 people on each of three shifts.
Auto dealership
At the board’s previous meeting on Feb. 13, supervisors voted unanimously to execute development agreements with Fred Beans automotive dealerships, which assumed ownership of Bill Marsh Ford on North Sycamore Street in 2016.
That gives the green light for the Doylestown-based dealership to begin a multi-million dollar improvement project that will bring the buildings – including an unsightly auto body shop – in line with the Town Commercial District (TCD).
The district was created in 2012 with the intention of turning Sycamore Street into a downtown thoroughfare. With that in mind, the frontages of the buildings at Fred Beans’ Newtown location, including the showroom, will be extended closer to Sycamore Street.
The dealership plans to add a stone façade to the body shop.
Throughout the approval process, Fred Beans worked closely with the Historical Architectural Review Board (HARB), even though the dealership is not located within the township’s historic district.
The TCD does not allow auto dealerships, however, so Fred Beans needed the supervisors to sign off on an exception request along with approval from the zoning hearing board on its development plans. The supervisors approved the exception request in 2017.
As part of the plan, the dealership plans to remove one of four existing entrances to the property and reduce the number of signs.
Arcadia Green
In other development news, builder Arcadia at Newtown Holdings is suing the township, saying it failed to send signed copies of its denial of the developer’s third and most recent application to erect 76 homes on a 22.5-acre parcel located near the corner of Newtown Bypass and Buck Road.
Known as Arcadia Green, Philadelphia-based Arcadia Land Company has been trying to develop the property known as the Wynmere/Karr tract since 2015 when the developer submitted plans to build 33 single homes on 19 acres of land.
That plan was denied along with two other plans submitted by Arcadia. All denials are the subject of court litigation initiated by Arcadia.
According to Board Secretary-Treasurer John Mack, the crux of the developer’s most recent lawsuit is that the board’s decision documents were not certified, and that supervisors had not signed a copy sent to Arcadia before Nov. 25 when a 60-day window for tentative approval of its planned residential development (PRD) application expired.
The township has appealed.
According to Mack, Solicitor David Sander contends he sent Arcadia attorney John VanLuvanee the decision documents outlining the supervisors’ findings on Nov. 24, the same day as Township Manager Micah Lewis certified the decision.
While Sander sent VanLuvanee identical documents bearing the supervisors’ signatures in mid-December, the builder says that was too late.
However, Sander contends that his Nov. 24 email, together with the supervisors’ verbal denial of the project at the Nov. 14 board meeting, met the requirements of the municipal planning code.
What should have been said ...
A story that appeared in the Herald’s March 7 print edition with the headline “Chipotle could be coming to Village at Newtown West,” under the subhead, Arcadia Green, some information was attributed to Newtown Township Board of Supervisors Treasurer-Secretary John Mack. The information was garnished from Mack’s blogsite, where Mack was actually quoting information he’d read in a recent article from another publication. The article also cited legal action taken by Township Solicitor David Sander.
That information was also from the blogsite, not from the township meeting.
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