Planners Deny Stone Meadows Farm Proposal To Build 123 Homes

The Middletown Planning Commission voted down the proposal to build 123 homes on the 168-acre Stone Meadows Farm property.

The planners 7-0 vote before a packed meeting hall is only a recommendation and developer Metropolitan Development Group can bring their plans directly to the Board of Supervisors down the road.

The main sticking points for planners were concerns over a proposed connector road to Summit Trace, which would go through open space, and the width of roadways in the proposed development.

The current plans that were laid out Wednesday evening break the development into two sections – 88 homes off Newtown-Langhorne Road and 35 dwellings off and along Fulling Mill Road. The plans provide for close to 50 acres of open space, including a floodplain, and 9.45 acres carved out to maintain the existing Stone family homestead and farm buildings. The lots for each home range in size from 24,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet.

Metropolitan Development Group’s plans include the a traffic light on Newtown-Langhorne Road and a second right-in and right-out intersection with a stop sign in addition to a connector road to Summit Trace. The Fulling Mill Road side of the development would have two intersections with stop signs connecting to the existing roadway. There would be no access for vehicles looking to enter along Tollgate Road.

A large portion of the farm property that sits near Core Creek Park is slated to remain open space, mainly due to the floodplain. Some of the open space would be used for stormwater basins, buffer yards, and a 10-foot-wide walking trail.

Despite the final outcome from the Middletown Planning Commission, Metropolitan Development Group seemed throughout the evening willing to work with the township on improving their plans.

Members of the group Save Stone Meadows Farm, which is seeking to persevere the largest farm remaining in Middletown, cheered the planners’ decision. In addition, they spoke against the proposal and raised concerns over traffic, the cost to maintain township resources to the new neighborhood, and losing a piece of open space.

Zachary Sivertsen from Eastburn and Gray, the attorney for Save Stone Meadows Farm, told officials that “hundreds of neighbors” were against the plans to build homes on the property. He further said the group had a traffic engineer look at the area and he raised concerns.

“It’s not just about Middletown … this is a connected [area] that connects everyone to the hospital,” Middletown resident Jeff Miller said, noting the potential traffic impacts the development could have on the area roads near St. Mary Medical Center.

Carla Jones, a Middletown resident, raised the concern that the connection to Summit Trace would go through an area near the entrance way that was designed to be open space.

Mary Sly, a resident who lives near the farm property and a U.S. Army veteran, told planners she bought her home after serving in war and enjoyed the peaceful view.

“What would it take to you go away?” she asked representatives for Metropolitan Development Group.

While area residents and Save Stone Meadows Farm have worked to try to raise funds to make an offer on the property, there have been roadblocks obtaining the funds needed. The township and county have both previously said they do not have the funds to put forward.

The Stone Meadows Farm property is under an agreement of sale with Metropolitan Development Group. Sources have said the estimated purchase price for the property is between $8 and $16 million.

Middletown’s development consultants have gone back and forth with Metropolitan Development Group over the years as new plans were submitted.

The plans for the proposed development have changed over time. At one time, the developer’s website said as many as 135 homes could be constructed on the site.

The farm property is currently owned by relatives of famed actors Ezra Stone and Sara Seegar, who dominated stage and screen during their careers last century. According to a BucksLocalNews.com article from 2013, actors Debbie Reynolds, Jackie Cooper, and Gary Merrill were among the many celebrities who joined the Stones at celebrations at the farm.

“I remember Burl Ives singing ‘Jimmy Crack Corn And I Don’t Care’ in our living room, and having my secret crush Jack Cassidy serenade me on our front lawn,” Francine Stone, daughter of the actors, told BucksLocalNews.com.

A Philadelphia Inquirer article from the early 1990s reported Ezra Stone and Sara Seegar began living on and off in Bucks County in 1946 and moved to the area full time from Hollywood in 1979.