Arcadia Green PRD Three Peat: Denied Again!
For the third time in as many years, the Newtown Board of Supervisors (BOS Definition) voted unanimously to deny approval of a tentative Arcadia Green Planned Residential Development (PRD Definition) project!
The vote was made at the November 14, 2018, BOS meeting. For background, read summaries of minutes of previous BOS meetings, “Newtown Crossing vs Arcadia: Residents Speak Out” and “Arcadia Green Development Hearings”.
Here's what I had to say: “After listening to all the testimony, reading the reports of experts, and listening to residents of surrounding communities, I will vote to deny the current Arcadia PRD because I think it would be unsafe for residents of that development – should it go forward – to exit and enter the development. Also, let’s not forget the additional traffic it would bring to the intersection of Buck Road and the Bypass. Lastly, the plan for a U-turn to allow access to the Bypass is totally impractical, unsafe, and will cause major delays in my opinion, which seems to also be the opinion of PennDOT and other experts.”
Having sat through several hearings regarding this PRD, I am happy that I will never need sit through such hearings again. This assumes that Wrightstown and Upper Makefield have followed Newtown’s lead and approved the amendment of the JMZO to remove PRD as a permitted use. For more about that, read “Newtown Votes to Delete Planned Residential Development (PRD) from JMZO”.
Posted on 15 Nov 2018, 13:31 - Category: Development
Does Newtown Need a Mobile-Enabled Emergency Notification System?
Recently, there have been several emergency or near emergency situations in Newtown Township. On March 7, 2018, during a snow emergency power failure, the Township Building was open as a “warming center,” but before any township residents were made aware of this, power was restored; on October 5, 2018, the Bucks County Community College was locked down due to a supposed terrorist threat, but residents did not get immediate alerts sent to their cell phones; on October 24, 2018, Swamp Road and Route 413 experienced significant traffic delays due to an accident, but many residents were unaware of the problem.
The list goes on. And although the Newtown Police Department and/or the Township Manager were able to post information about some of these events on Twitter and Facebook or via email to homeowner association management companies (with the hope that it would passed along to HOAs and residents), these notices reached a limited number of residents, reached them too late, or never reached them at all.
Not only is there a limited ability for the Newtown Police and Administration Departments to send out emergency and other notices to residents, there is limited ability of residents to easily communicate information to the Township and be assured that a record is kept of each contact.
The Newtown Technology Committee has been investigating services that can solve these problems by sending notices to residents about active shooters, traffic incidents, community events, severe weather alerts, missing persons, etc., via text, mobile apps, email, voice, Twitter, and Facebook. One such system is NIXLE, which is used by over 8,000 communities across the country. For more information download the NIXLE data sheet.
Such a service would cost Newtown Township about $5,000 per year. The service is FREE to residents who sign up (opt-in) to use it. Is it worth it?
Recently, I spoke with the Chief of a Regional Police Department that uses NIXLE. According to him, "Nixle has been working very well for us. We purchased this service and permit the three municipalities in the region to also post notices/alerts through our system. All officers can post an alert. The system is very easy to use, especially the mobile application. I have already used NIXLE's mobile app from my car while traveling to the scene of an event."
Citizens and residents from surrounding municipalities can opt in to receive mobile, email or hard line phone notifications. His department created information cards and officers hand them out at community events to make people aware of the system.
"I would say that Nixle is a benefit and cost appropriate," said the Chief.
So, should Newtown purchase such a system to instantly send out Emergency Alerts, Advisories (less urgent need-to-know information), Community Information (day-to-day neighborhood to community-level information), Traffic (very localized traffic information), etc?
If you are a Newtown area resident, please take a short survey to let me know if you would opt-in to such a service if it were available to Newtown Township and Wrightstown residents (both communities are serviced by the Newtown Township Police Department) as well as Newtown Borough residents.
No identifying information is collected via this survey unless you opt-in to provide such information for purposes of follow-up by subscribing to John Mack's email newsletter.
DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Newtown Township approved survey. Its purpose is solely to inform John Mack – a Newtown Supervisor – of the public’s opinion regarding this issue.
Posted on 13 Nov 2018, 10:40 - Category: Survey Results
John Mack’s Supervisor Report for October 2018
As I reported in September, Newtown Supervisors prepare for and attend a lot of meetings (read “A Month in the Life of a Newtown Supervisor: Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings!”). Some of us also spend time doing other things as well, such as having full-time jobs, being parents, and volunteering for other community services.
Admittedly, I have a lot of free time to devote to my Supervisor duties – perhaps more than other Supervisors. I am a retired businessman whose children are adults and sad to say, I do not have any grandchildren to keep me busy, yet! And I am not a golfer! So, for me, I have the “luxury” of devoting as much time to being a Supervisor as I wish. This month, for example, I spent a total of 57.5 hours on official Supervisor-related activities. The following report provides details of how these hours were spent.
I decided to keep track of my activities as a Supervisor on a monthly basis partly because I want to be accountable to residents, but also to make sure I am making the best use of my time.
What This Report Does Not Include
My log of Supervisor-related activiies does not include the many hours I spend posting to this blog, maintaining my personal website, writing a newsletter, creating and posting video clips from meetings, hosting podcast interviews, summarizing decisions made by the Board of Supervisors (BOS Definition), etc. Also not included is the time I spend posting to my personal Facebook page, Twitter account, and Instagram account. These activities are NOT part of my official duties as Supervisor, but represent my personal views.My log keeps track of the time spent on the following:
- Attending “Required” Meetings
- Preparation for BOS Meetings
- Attending Optional Meetings/Activities
- Interaction with Residents
- Travel To & From Meetings
Meetings
In the month of October 2018, I estimate that I spent about 17 hours attending meetings, which was significantly less than the 34 hours I spent attending meetings last month. BOS meetings are “required” in the sense that I am expected to attend them in order to satisfy my duties as a Supervisor. These include regular bi-weekly public meetings, non-public Executive Sessions Definition, public Work Sessions Definition, and special meetings (see the list below).
“Other Meetings” I attended were optional. For October, 2018, these included:
- Planning Commission meetings: October 2 and 16, 2018
- Zoning Hearing Board meeting: October 4, 2018
- Finance Committee meeting: October 9, 2018
- Joint Historic Commission meeting: October 22, 2018
I spent 8.8 hours attending these optional meetings. In total, I spent nearly 33.7 hours in October, 2018, attending all the above meetings, preparing for these meetings, and traveling to and from these meetings. The following chart shows the breakdown of all my Supervisor-related activities for October, 2018:
Interaction with Residents
In my opinion, personal interaction with residents regarding their concerns is an important part of my responsibilities as Supervisor. I want to be sure that I spend enough time reaching out to and responding to residents via personal contact, official email via my johnm@newtownpa.gov account and via my personal john@johnmacknewtown.info account, and via phone and/or Facebook. For October, 2018, I spent approximately 9 hours (16% of my total logged hours) interacting with residents.
What did I discuss with residents? Here’s a partial list (some items are not included for confidentiality reasons):
- Noise issues related to Sit-Stay (for background, read, “Board of Supervisors Decimate Noise Ordinance”)
- Review of newsletter article prior to publication with Finance Committee members (read “The Newtown Township Finance Committee Warns of Approaching Precipice”)
- Text Amendment of CO Zoning Ordinance (for more on that, read “The Newtown Township Planning Commission Stymies Path Forward for Wawa - For Now”)
- Traffic Impact Fee Advisory Committee (for background, read “$1.6 Million Available for Traffic Improvements BUT It Can't Be Spent!”)
Disclaimer
When speaking with residents on issues that may come before the BOS in the future for a vote, I never express an opinion as to how I will vote because I may not have all the information. Needless to say, I also do NOT discuss any confidential information that is not in the public domain. These discussions with residents are meant solely to inform me of their opinions, not for me to give them my opinion. Or it is just to listen to complaints/concerns and to forward them on to the BOS if necessaryI spent some time nearly every day of the month in October working for you as Supervisor (see chart below). Not that I’m complaining! It's really an honor to serve the community! I learn something new every day and have met many fine people and volunteers who also put in a lot of time without any compensation at all. Thanks to everyone who help keep Newtown in business and safe.
Posted on 01 Nov 2018, 01:41 - Category: Governance
What's Next for Ordinance Amendment to Allow Wawa on Newtown Bypass?... It's Complicated!
Recall from a previous post that on October 16, 2018, the Newtown Planning Commission sent back to the Board of Supervisors (BOS Definition) for revision the proposed OR zone ordinance Text Amendment Definition designed to allow a “modern, motor vehicle fueling center consisting of a convenience store with accessory motor vehicle fuel sales” (e.g., Wawa) on the Bypass (read "The Newtown Township Planning Commission Stymies Path Forward for Wawa - For Now").
Several residents wondered what the next steps are in the process and when will they be able to see the amended ordinance. I wondered as well and asked Dave Sander, the Township Solicitor Definition, to outline the steps at the October 24, 2018, BOS meeting. The short answer was "it's complicated."
The following video clip from the October 24, 2018, BOS meeting provides the definitive and a more detailed answer, which may or may not clarify things.
I jokingly suggested we needed a flow chart to visualize the steps. Of course, I went ahead and created my own flow chart! There may be some steps that I left out, such as the participation by the Wrightstown and Upper Makefiled Planning Commissions. We are currently (October 30, 2018) at step #3. As suggested by BOS members, the whole process can take many months, even years!
Red represents the stage where there will be a public hearing for residents to
comment on the amendment before a final vote is taken. As of the beginning of
November, 2018, we are at stage 3 waiting for changes, input from the attorneys.
Posted on 29 Oct 2018, 13:33 - Category: Ordinances
$1.6 Million Available for Traffic Improvements BUT It Can't Be Spent!
Whenever new residential or business developments are proposed for Newtown, the impact on traffic is a major concern of residents (read, for example, “Newtown Board of Supervisors Shoots Down Drive-thru Starbucks” and “Super Wawa Survey Comments” and “Arcadia Green Development Hearings”).
In order to mitigate these concerns, the township collects traffic impact fees from developers to make capital improvements to accommodate traffic generated by new development. Eligible improvements include adjustments to existing traffic signals, new traffic signals, auxiliary turn lanes, etc.
Currently, Newtown has accumulated approximately $1.6 million in traffic impact fees but is unable to use those funds because it lacks an updated capital improvements plan, which is necessary for the use of those funds.
Traffic Impact Fee Advisory Committee (TIFAC) Needed
During the 2019 Budget presentation before the Board of Supervisors (BOS) on October 15, 2018, former Newtown Township Manager Kurt Ferguson brought this issue to the forefront. He discussed the urgent need to form a Traffic Impact Fee Advisory Committee (TIFAC Definition) in order to utilize the $1.6 million already collected from developers (see the video below).
As Mr. Ferguson mentioned, in order to utilize these funds, a transportation capital improvements plan must be prepared and adopted by the Board of Supervisors (BOS Definition) to the enactment a necessary amendment to the impact fee ordinance. According to the procedures, provisions and standards set forth in Act 209, which allows the collection of impact fees, the township must create a TIFAC to develop the transportation capital improvements plan.
According to the PA “Transportation Impact Fees Handbook”, impact fees can be used for capacity improvements to accommodate traffic generated by new development, but not to address existing or anticipated deficiencies unrelated to the development.
“As a general rule,” according to the Handbook cited above, “for impact fees to be an effective funding tool, potential should exist for development of at least 50 to 100 residential units per year and approximately 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of non-residential development per year for a minimum of five years. Municipalities that are near build-out or do not expect significant growth due to current zoning, economic conditions, environmental features, or preserved lands generally do not benefit from impact fees.”
Currently, Newtown does NOT have a TIFAC and therefore it CANNOT utilize the $1.6 million dollars in the Transportation Service Area Funds ($470,682.79 in TSA1 fund plus $1.161,472.01 in TSA2 fund, according to the September, 2018, Treasurer’s Report) established as per Act 209.
The TIFAC must be comprised of 7 to 15 members. Although an even number of members is permitted, an odd number is recommended to avoid tie votes on recommended actions to the governing body. A minimum of 40 percent of the TIFAC must be made up of real estate professionals, developers (commercial and/or residential), and building industry professionals that live or conduct business in the municipality.
The remaining 60 percent must be residents. It is desirable to have people with municipal planning experience serve on the committee, such as people who serve on the planning commission and/or other committees. However, municipal staff may not serve on the TIFAC.
According to the PA “Transportation Impact Fees Handbook”, a municipality may appoint its Planning Commission as the TIFAC, provided that the 40 percent requirement is met. “If this cannot be met, appropriate people must be appointed to serve as ad hoc voting members of the advisory committee when the planning commission acts as the TIFAC.”
The TIFAC will coordinate with professional traffic engineers and will assess existing traffic conditions throughout the Township, develop recommendations for potential traffic improvements – such as location of additional traffic signals, and develop impact fees for future development based on potential traffic improvements.
If you are interested in serving on this Committee, please submit a letter of interest and resume to Olivia Kivenko, Newtown Township, 100 Municipal Drive, Newtown PA 18940, by email to oliviak@newtownpa.gov or by fax at (215) 968-5368.
Posted on 27 Oct 2018, 01:24 - Category: Traffic
