If you drive Woodbourne Road in Middletown Township, the view is changing fast. Framing is up on one former school property, site work is moving at another old community parcel, and together the two projects will put 100 townhomes onto a short stretch of Levittown. According to a LevittownNow report, the projects are Thatcher Square and Neshaminy Springs, about 1,000 feet apart.

Two projects will add 100 homes off Woodbourne Road in Levittown

LevittownNow reported that builder W.B. Homes is in the early construction phase at Thatcher Square, a 34-unit development at 1492 Woodbourne Road on the former Knights of Columbus property. Down the road, Pulte Homes is further along at Neshaminy Springs, a 66-townhome community on the former Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School site.

That is a lot of new housing for one corridor. It is also the kind of reuse local officials keep ending up with in older parts of Lower Bucks County, where former schools, club properties and commercial parcels do not stay empty for long. As background, Levittown has long been shaped by postwar single-family neighborhoods, so attached townhome construction stands out here more than it would in a denser borough with blocks of rowhomes already in place.

The other piece is price. These are not starter homes in the old sense of the phrase. LevittownNow reported that most units at Neshaminy Springs are listed from $549,000 to $592,000, while officials had previously estimated Thatcher Square units would top $500,000. In other words, this adds supply, but it does not solve the county’s lower-cost housing shortage by itself.

Thatcher Square sets aside seven Levittown homes below market price

The more interesting part of Thatcher Square is the affordable housing piece. According to LevittownNow, seven of the 34 units will be sold to Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County for about $365,000 each. Habitat Bucks will then handle the sales to buyers who meet its rules, including living or working in Bucks County and showing financial need.

That kind of deal is worth watching because it is one of the few concrete examples of below-market ownership units getting baked into a new development here instead of being talked about in abstract terms at a meeting microphone. Seven homes will not fix the gap between wages and home prices, but seven is still seven. For households that have been priced out of much of Lower Bucks, those units are real addresses, not a slogan.

LevittownNow also reported that township officials did not expect Thatcher Square’s layout to generate more vehicle traffic than the old Knights of Columbus use. Maybe. Maybe not. Residents who live near these projects know the daily test is not a traffic study on paper, it is what Woodbourne Road feels like during school pickup, rush hour and weekend errands. Readers who follow our Levittown coverage have seen this pattern before: aging sites get reused, neighbors worry about traffic first, and home prices stay high anyway.

Neshaminy Springs replaces a former Levittown school site

Neshaminy Springs has a longer backstory. LevittownNow reported that Pulte bought the 13.9-acre site last year from the CIBC Foundation for $4.1 million. The foundation had purchased the land from the Neshaminy School District in 2013 for $2.2 million after the former Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School property was no longer needed for classes.

The first version of the redevelopment was different. LevittownNow reported that Westrum Development had proposed a 70-unit, age-targeted community, but the Middletown Township Zoning Hearing Board denied that plan. A revised application later came out of a settlement, and Pulte eventually took over the project.

The approved plan includes a bigger setback from the road than the first version, open space, a decorative fence, resident and guest parking, and a new turn lane on Woodbourne Road, according to LevittownNow. That last item may end up being the piece nearby drivers notice most. Houses go up and then blend into the background. A turn lane, construction traffic and extra cars on a short stretch of road tend to get people’s attention right away.

Pulte’s listings cited by LevittownNow say the homes will have three- and four-bedroom layouts with two-car garages, and eight units had already sold. So this is not some far-off approved plan sitting in a file drawer. It is already happening.

What This Means for Bucks County Residents

For buyers, the plain answer is that 100 more homes on the market is better than zero, especially in a county where prices have stayed high and older properties do not sit unsold for long. For longtime residents nearby, the plain answer is that more housing usually brings more traffic, more turning movements and a different feel on the road in front of you.

There is also a larger county story sitting behind this one. Around Bucks County government and on local zoning boards, housing fights now tend to land on the same few points every time: where to put new homes, who can afford them, and how much extra strain nearby roads can take. If work tied to these projects spills onto state-controlled routes or connected traffic changes, PennDOT is the agency residents usually end up checking for standards and notices.

The Thatcher Square set-asides also show the split in today’s market. There is still demand for new homes above half a million dollars, and there is also a need for homes priced well below that. Both things can be true at once. If you read our Bucks County news coverage regularly, you have probably noticed the same tension in town after town: more units get approved, but the homes many younger buyers actually need remain scarce.

Buyers can watch the W.B. Homes and Pulte Homes sites for listings and timing. Neighbors along Woodbourne Road should keep an eye on future township agendas and traffic items as the buildout continues.

Sources and Further Reading

• LevittownNow – Local report on Thatcher Square and Neshaminy Springs construction.
• W.B. Homes – Official homebuilder website for Thatcher Square’s developer.
• Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County – Official nonprofit website for the group handling affordable unit sales.
• Pulte Homes – Official homebuilder website for Neshaminy Springs.
• Neshaminy School District – Official district website for the former school property’s public school background.
• Bucks County Government – Official county government homepage.
• PennDOT – Official Pennsylvania transportation agency website.