Plan for 60 affordable senior apartments approved by neighboring Bucks County communities
Officials in Doylestown Township and Doylestown Borough support building the apartments on a North Broad Street site important to both communities.
The Doylestown Township Board of Supervisors approved a zoning change Tuesday that will enable a proposed affordable housing development to proceed.
The unanimous vote followed a positive recommendation Monday by the township planning commission, as well as a meeting of minds between officials of the township and the Borough of Doylestown in Bucks County.
A portion of the four-acre development site on North Broad Street is within the borough’s boundaries.
“We appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with the township and the developer, and we’re pleased with the outcome,” Phil Ehlinger, the borough’s deputy manager, told the board.
The Philadelphia developers, Jason Duckworth of the Arcadia Land Co. and Ryan Bailey of Pennrose, said the approval means they can apply for a federal low-income housing tax credit to help finance the $30 million project. The application deadline is Jan. 11.
“We’re rapidly moving forward,” Bailey said.
“It took some time to get to this point,” Duckworth said, adding that the supervisor board’s decision to delay approval “provoked some hard conversations that had to take place.”
The 280 N. Broad development would include a four-story, 60-unit apartment building for income-eligible tenants over 62. Three of those apartments would be set aside for people over 62 who are still working, and the building will be marketed to U.S. military veterans over 62.
The building would be part of a community that also will include 18 townhouses that will be offered for sale at market rates. The mostly vacant development site is across North Broad from a formerly industrial district of the borough, where residential, commercial, and recreational developments have been completed or are underway. The developers had sought approval of residential development on land zoned for light industry.
A dog park envisioned in earlier versions of the proposal and later eliminated has been revived. Instead of solely serving the pet owners among the residents of the new community, the half-acre space will be open to pet owners in the township and in the borough as well. Duckworth said the land for the park could be deeded over to the borough.