Proposed Housing Development At School Site Raises Questions At Zoning Meeting

Builders for a proposed housing development on an old elementary school property made their case at a recent meeting, but the presentation left the board with more questions than they had the time for. 

At the Middletown Township Zoning Hearing Board meeting earlier this month, Erin Development Company, of Lower Makefield Township, presented a plan to convert the Middletown Township portion of the former Oliver Heckman Elementary School property on Cherry Street into 44 townhomes. The former school, which sits partially within Langhorne Borough, will also have three twin houses totaling six units on the borough side of the property. 

In an email, Langhorne Borough said that Erin Development has approached the borough about the proposal for the borough portion of the property, but they need to submit a revised plan.

The school was built in 1966 on an 8-acre property that was the fields of the former Langhorne-Middletown High School. Neshaminy School District closed Heckman in 2016 with the opening of the new Tawanka Elementary School in Lower Southampton Township. The district closed the school because it would’ve required significant investments “to bring it up to modern standards.”

Neshaminy approved an agreement of sale for the property with Erin Development for $3.2 million in 2023.

Andrew Stoll, an attorney representing the builders, asked the board for numerous zoning variances, one of which was to build multi-family homes in a zone that only allows single family homes.

In Langhorne Borough, the property is already zoned for professional use that allows the twin houses proposed for the part of the property immediately along Cherry Street. 

Stoll argued that this development should be granted a variance because all of the surrounding properties do not follow the existing zoning. In Middletown Township, the former school is surrounded by office buildings, a daycare and Woods Services, which is a residential school for disabled adults. 

Robert Cunningham, the civil engineer for the project, presented a map of the proposed development, and said it would be similar to St. James Court, which is adjacent to the Middletown Township Municipal Complex. 

Although Cunningham said he doesn’t have the exact number of bedrooms and size of the townhomes, when questioned by chairman Ernie Peacock, he said that they could be about three bedrooms, and later said they could be around 3,000 square feet.

A common concern brought up by the council was the traffic the development could bring. Due to the limited time, the traffic engineer was not able to speak, but Stoll did explain that there would be less congestion with the houses compared to the prior use as a school.

“The prior use as a school yielded 282 peak hourly trips, whereas this development produces a peak hour of 20 something,” he said. 

Plans show for just one access point into the development from Cherry Street, but Cunningham said he would consider an additional emergency access point from adjacent Oakwood Drive or Buttonwood Drive, which are two private roads owned by Woods Services.

But some people had concerns over the plans, including two people who were given party status.

Langhorne Borough Councilman Bob Cumming spoke on behalf of the borough, and asked Stoll and Cunningham multiple questions, including about where stormwater would go.

Cunningham  said there would be two basins, one on the Middletown side and one on the borough side, and they would discharge into existing infrastructure on Pine Street.

Carol Zetterberg, the Langhorne Open Space land director of funding and development, asked Cunningham if there would be any open space in the development. 

He said that over an acre of the property would be open space, and that there would be sidewalks throughout the development. But Zetterberg also pointed out that the developer is considering the two water retention basins as part of the open space. 

“We have areas that would be owned by the community that we would define as open space,” Cunningham said.

Stoll explained that this will be an age-targeted development by designing the neighborhood in a way that aims to attract older people without children, such as a lack of a playground and the placement of the master bedroom on the first floor for people with mobility issues. 

But unlike an age-restricted development, there will be no legal barriers preventing children from living in the development. Stoll said they worked with Neshaminy School District, who currently owns the property, to prevent overcrowding in the school district.

“It’s going to have a high end type of user, a high end type of product, looking at the emptynester or someone looking to downsize,” he said. 

At one point, board secretary James McCafferty asked Cunningham why they couldn’t develop it into single family homes, as is already allowed by the current zoning. 

Cunningham said that it wouldn’t be profitable to do so.

“It isn’t a neat-nice property; it has some ‘hair’ on it, and therefore anyone who would go about redeveloping this property would need some kind of density above what is permitted by right in order to make it financially viable,” he said. 

When McCafferty asked if they did an analysis on the number of students the homes could bring, Cunningham said that the district did an analysis and determined themselves that age-targeted townhomes would be better than single family homes.

“Are you suggesting that 12 singles would have more kids than 50 townhomes,” said McCafferty.

“Age-targeted townhomes? Yeah, we are suggesting that because there’s not going to be many school aged kids living in this development,” said Cunningham.

Due to extensive comment from the board and public, the meeting will be continued on Jan. 8, 2025, at 7 p.m. The traffic engineer and professional land planner for the project are expected to speak at that meeting.

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