Wednesday
September 18, 2024 
A strong difference of opinion is emerging over whether a proposed zoning change in Doylestown Township will cause dramatic changes in neighboring Doylestown Borough.
Township planners are taking a second look at a 280 N. Broad St. housing development for lower-income seniors, with a marketing emphasis on veterans. But officials in each municipality are divided on the implications of zoning alterations needed to move the project forward.
Plans also include three market-rate, one-bedroom apartments with rents at about $1,800 a month, and 13 to 15 market-rate townhouses.
After several years of working jointly with the borough and township on a development plan, Arcadia Land Development presented a project solely on the approximately three acres of the property located in the township. One acre of the property, where the former Tilley’s Fire Equipment was, is in the borough.
At the heart of the growing concern is the required zoning, which, according to Barbara Lyons, chairwoman of the Doylestown Township Board of Supervisors, is an “added use” to the community’s light industrial zoning ordinance and would be restricted to the site of this particular housing development.
Responding to borough concerns that the zoning change will open the door to residential development throughout the township’s LI district, Lyons said that’s not the case.
“The particular conditions for this (project) would not be compatible” for other areas of the township zoned light industrial,” said Lyons. “We’re pleased with the opportunity for this development. There’s nothing else like it in the borough or the township. It will offer seniors affordable housing.”
The unique feature of this location, Lyons said, is its “walkability” to the boroughs’ shops, restaurants and services. Other sections of the township’s LI district cannot offer that, she stressed, and so would not meet the standards of the new use.
John Davis, Doylestown’s borough manager, however, sees it differently. He’s urging the township to pause and consider the long-term implications.
“It’s moving fast,” he said, in a recent interview. “It’s our hope to hold it up and slow it down. It has not been considered properly,” by both municipalities, said Davis.
A zoning change, said the manager, is “not done every day…it’s a considerable change.” Hundreds of acres in the township are zoned light industrial, he emphasized. “Before a change of that scope, it’s inarguable there should be planning.”
“If you took this (zoning change) and extended it to the entire township LI district, there could be 1,300 housing units.”
Furthermore, said Davis, there will be only one access to the development, off North Broad Street, at the site of the former Tilley’s.
“The entire impact (of the project) will make the residents de facto Doylestown Borough residents,” said the manager.
Lyons said, “I respect John and I respect borough council…but I don’t adhere to slippery slope concerns. We are focused on this project.”
The township’s planning commission meets Dec. 18 to again review what’s proposed.
Arcadia Land Development also built The Martin, a 59-apartment complex on North Main Street. Those units are now being leased.
The North Broad Street end of the small borough has seen dramatic changes since the 2021 redevelopment of the former PennDOT site. A public park replaced the transportation agency’s maintenance yard and the borough repurposed the Depression-era offices and garage into its administrative offices and police headquarters.
At 333 N. Broad St., work is underway for a 233-apartment complex across three buildings. Two of the buildings will be four stories, while the third will be seven stories. The taller structure is going up in the far corner of the site, near Center Square Towers, a neighboring apartment complex.
Besides the apartments, approximately 10,000-square-feet of retail and/or office space is included on the lower level of the project, as is a parking garage.
Doylestown’s housing boom is growing in the town’s center, too. 50 North Main, with its six, $1M+ condos, retail space and wine bar, is nearing completion.
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