Woods Services Board Chairman Extols Virtues Of Proposed Apartment Building Before Zoners

Testimony from Woods Services Board of Trustees Chairman Barry Sharer highlighting the positives of a proposed apartment building took up almost all of Wednesday night’s two-hour Middletown Township Zoning Hearing Board meeting.

Just like at an earlier hearing on the matter in April, residents – many of whom are concerned with traffic and other problems they feel the project might bring – packed the room. However, they won’t get a chance to start commenting in person until the next scheduled hearing on Sept. 14. If all public comment isn’t finished on that night, the hearing will be continued again on Sept. 28, Middletown Township Zoning Hearing Board solicitor Patrick Hitchens said.

The nonprofit which serves people with a variety of intellectual and developmental disabilities is proposing a multi-story building with 42 attainable/affordable apartments for a 19-acre slice of the 285-acre Woods campus. The building called Maple View would be located at Woods’ Beechwood NeuroRehab property at 469 East Maple Avenue near Middletown Township’s border with Langhorne Borough.

Woods Services is seeking variances that would allow an apartment use and more dwelling units per acre than normally permitted in the R-1 zoning district. Originally planned for four stories, Woods will reduce the height of the building – probably down to three stories – so that it doesn’t have to seek another variance to exceed the 35-foot height limit, officials with the nonprofit said.

Woods plans to obtain tax credits for the project that would incentivize construction of attainable/affordable housing and that would actually fund 80 percent of the construction of this building, Sharer testified.

He added that Woods has set aside nine apartments for its clients with brain injuries and other intellectual disabilities, and also nine units for possible tenants referred to it by Bucks County under an agreement with the county. The remaining units would be offered to Woods employees and the general public on a first-come, first-served basis, Sharer explained.

Many Woods employees could benefit from more affordable housing because they aren’t paid exceptionally high wages and many commute to the facility from a long distance, he testified.

“This country is sorely lacking in affordable housing,” Sharer said. “Many employees who directly serve our clients make between $17 and $24 an hour and just can’t afford the cost of housing.”

When asked why Woods doesn’t address that issue by paying its employees more, Sharer responded that wages have increased dramatically over the last two years.

“We are reimbursed by Medicaid and the state for costs, and so we are somewhat limited on how much we can increase wages,” he added.

Zoning Hearing Board Chairman Ernie Peacock asked Sharer why Woods doesn’t just build a much smaller building with nine independent-living apartments for the clients.

Sharer responded that there are licensing restrictions for more housing of that type and also that doing that would not meet the other goal of providing more affordable housing for Woods employees and the general public.

Sharer and Woods attorney for the project Mike Meginniss said all tenants would be vigorously vetted, including criminal background checks, and would pose no danger to fellow tenants or the surrounding community.

They added that Woods would be the controlling partner of the building and – unlike the rest of the nonprofit’s campus – would pay property taxes on it to Middletown Township, Bucks County and the Neshaminy School District.

Sharer conceded that the process for selecting tenants does not guarantee Woods employees would end up with any of the apartments. Regardless, he added that he felt confident a fair share of employees would become tenants sooner or later.

If the zoners approve the variances, Woods would also need land development approval from the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors to construct the building.

Wednesday night’s meeting was held at Middletown Township’s Raymond P. Mongillo Senior Community Center on Trenton Road because the meeting room at the township municipal building just off North Flowers Mill Road is undergoing renovations.

The Sept. 14 hearing will be back at the normal venue in the municipal building, township officials said.

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