Plans Approved For New Daycare Center, Office Building In Newtown Twp.

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — A developer on Wednesday received final plan approval to build a daycare center and a medical office on Route 413 just to the north of the township complex.

But it might be a while before the 10,000-square-foot daycare center and the 6,000-square-foot medical/general office building are built on the slightly less than five-acre parcel located just to the north of the township building on Durham Road.

The project will have to wait until the developer is able to secure sewer capacity from the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority.

The approval of new sewer capacity is currently on hold until upgrades can be made to the Neshaminy Interceptor, which transports wastewater from Bucks County to Philadelphia for treatment.

“We understand that the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority has not allocated any new capacity for projects in the borough or the township, but we still have to apply,” land development attorney Ed Murphy told the supervisors. “We have to get on a list called the Connection Management Plan so that when sewer capacity is allocated we will be in line to hopefully get it.”

Murphy said at this point he’s unsure how many EDUs (equivalent dwelling units) the project will require. It could be as few as one or as many as 12,” he said.

EDUs are used to calculated how much sewer capacity a project is required to have.

When it is built, two free-standing buildings, which are by right uses in the professional services zoning district, would be built at the site with parking located behind the new buildings.

The daycare center is expected to house 120 children and 20 employees. It would also include a 5,000-square-foot outdoor play area adjacent to the building.

During public comment, Steven Kieley, representing the Delancey Court Board of Directors, again raised concern over the impact the redevelopment would have on the traffic patterns on Route 413 and on traffic exiting from Delancey Court.

Specifically, he pointed to potential line of sight issues with traffic backing up on Route 413 to turn left into the new daycare center during the morning rush hour blocking the view of traffic attempting to exit onto Route 413 from Delancey Court.

The township’s traffic engineer said PennDOT will be looking at retiming the traffic signals on Durham Road to prevent that from happening. If the retiming doesn’t address the issue, the supervisors said they’ll consider additional remedies in the future.