Newtown wrestles with change

"Live It Up," urge the large placards depicting multiethnic, young sophisticates shopping, dining and relaxing in style.

Not in Manayunk or New Hope, or even Wayne, mind you, but in staid Newtown Township, Delaware County, a bastion of suburban maturity.

The come-hither displays, placed in a local health club, promote Ellis Preserve Town Square, the centerpiece of a $500 million, 210-acre BPG Development Co. project that would transform "downtown" Newtown - nominally the intersection of busy Routes 3 and 252 - into a chic retail, office and residential destination.

But the bold Ellis Preserve, one of the biggest private developments under consideration in the region, has gotten a cool reception from residents who would rather out-of-towners not linger in their little burg.

A three-year standoff between BPG and Newtown supervisors climaxed this month when the frustrated developer suggested it might build a big-box store on its land instead. The town will hold public meetings tomorrow and Thursday to lay out its options.

Ellis Preserve is part of a national "town center" movement that eschews sprawl in favor of lively, walkable districts in which to live, work and play.

In BPG's Newtown office, a model of the project's 60-acre Town Square is packed with stores, offices, restaurants, a hotel, a 15-acre park and about 400 residences, including townhouses and apartments above shops - all with a Main Street feel. Developer Stephen Spaeder says 45 businesses, including Ann Taylor Loft, Borders, Sharper Image, Banana Republic and the Cheesecake Factory, have signed letters of intent.

The square would forever change the heart of Newtown. And some fear it would change its soul as well.

"We came to Newtown because it's quiet," said attorney Joe Catania, 52, chairman of the township board of supervisors, which must grant a mixed-use zoning variance for Ellis Preserve Town Square to be built.

The bedroom community of 11,700, where Catania has lived since 1959, "has always been a pass-through town. It's not a place where retail, or any other reason, attracts people," he said. And Catania likes it that way.

Elsewhere - Washington Township, Londonderry, Malvern, Doylestown - the principles of New Urbanism are all the rage.

"That's all I do," said Thomas Comitta, a West Chester planner who is hired by municipalities. "I work 100 hours a week rewriting zoning codes to promote town centers and mixed-use codes. I can't keep up with it."

Newtown supervisor H. Ross Lambert, a periodontist, finds the Ellis Preserve concept appealing. The town's own comprehensive plan, created in 2000, envisioned a mixed-use - if considerably less grand - hub.

Yet lawyer John Custer, another supervisor, worries that BPG's town square may go too far. "You have a lot of these town centers. . . . What's going to happen 50 years from now when the bloom comes off the rose?" he wondered. "We could have a white elephant."

Foes of Ellis Preserve aren't fighting the oft-waged battle between open space and development. BPG owns the land - a corporate campus behind a white picket fence, where stately trees and gray stone cottages attest to its days as Ellis College for fatherless girls - and will develop it, one way or another.

When the school lost enrollment, part of its 450 acres was acquired by Arco, which built its headquarters there. Years later, the company sold its land to software-maker SAP America Inc., which in 1999 opened the modern, glass building on West Chester Pike.

In 2004, SAP sold 210 acres to BPG, based in Lower Makefield. Sections were zoned for office, age-restricted residential, industrial and commercial use.

Spaeder believes the mixed-use Town Square, which would have double the retail space permitted under current zoning, would be more aesthetically pleasing than BPG's Plan B: a typical office park, 700 units of 55-plus housing and big stores.

"I struggle to see what the holdup is," he said. "Every community in America wants this type of town center."

This month BPG gave the planning commission a glimpse of the future should the town square be blocked. On the 13 acres now zoned commercial, BPG proposed one big-box store and two smaller ones. The W-word, as in Wal-Mart, was tossed about, leading some to suspect the proposal was a threat.

"People are opposed to change. Period," BPG development manager John Forde said. "We got fed up."

The tactic may have worked. This week's meetings at the Gauntlett Community Center will seek public feedback.

"Nobody wants to go in the direction of three box stores," said Eugene Capaldi, a retired Arco chemist who volunteers as head of the commission.

"It doesn't fit with Newtown's character," he said.

The same is said of BPG's mini King of Prussia, as some have called it, which Spaeder says could have 70 stores and restaurants. Concerns have been raised about traffic, storm-water capacity and demands on police and fire departments.

The very makeup of Newtown could change. Located in the 19073 zip code - ranked by MarketWatch.com as the nation's third-most-desirable metro-area community for retirees - it's now a place where a fifth of the population is 65 or older. Where 96 percent of residents are white. And where the early-bird special at Casey's Seafood Grille & Pub, open 20 years, is a favorite.

"It's going to bring a lot more different people to our community," said Linda Houldin, Newtown vice chairwoman of supervisors, who works for the Brandywine Conference and Visitors Bureau of Delaware County.

Ray Giuliani, 78, a member of Save Open Space, recalls when Newtown was just a crossroads.

"Most everyone knew everyone. We've changed from a town to I don't know what," said Guiliani, who backs the mixed-use plan if it preserves a historic tavern on the BPG property.

Many business owners in the Newtown Square Shopping Center, a Route 3 retail strip, are high on the town center. They expect it would increase foot traffic. But others lament the loss of Newtown's prosaic familiarity.

"It's grown too fast," said Barbara Walsh, 61, a 30-year Newtown Square resident who works at Norman's Hallmark. She supports the project, if only to avoid a big-box "eyesore."

To many youths, the complex would give the place some zip. "It would make the town new again," said Amanda Benner, 16, a student at Marple Newtown High School.

No matter what the town decides, said Capaldi, the planning commissioner, "progress keeps getting made. If we don't do it, it's going to get done west of us."

Yet Newtown's leadership sees no reason to rush.

"Our families are here, our friends are here," Catania said. "I don't want to walk down the street and have people point the finger and say, 'This is your fault.' I get that enough already."

For details on Ellis Preserve and to voice your opinion to the developer, go to http://go.philly.com/newtown.

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Presentations on the Ellis Preserve Town Square proposal will be made at 7 p.m. tomorrow and Thursday in the Gauntlett Community Center, Media Line Road and West Chester Pike. Information: 610-356-0200.

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