Editor’s note: Woods Services withdrew one of three zoning variances it seeks to build a 42-unit affordable housing apartments on its Middletown campus at s meeting Wednesday. The health care nonprofit, citing a "good faith effort" to allay public skepticism, said it won't pursue an exception to a township height requirement, currently at 35 feet. Woods sought to build at 54 feet.

Woods will continue to petition for two other exceptions, one seeking relief from conventional residential zoning, the other to increase the number of housing units from two to three per acre. The zoning board meeting, often sleepy affairs, was attended by some 200 people, most opposing the the project near traffic-clogged Flowers Mill Road/Route 213.

The meeting lasted three hours before breaking up at 10 p.m. The zoning board will take more testimony on the issue at its September meeting, and possibly hear public comment. The apartment project and rents will be subsidized through tax credits, and is aimed at service workers and Woods employees with starter incomes of $30,000 to $40,000 a year.

A plan by Woods Services to build affordable housing on East Maple Avenue in Middletown is being met with opposition as local residents say the 42 apartments will add traffic and decrease their property values.

Woods, which has long provided services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities at its nearby campus on Route 213, wants to build the complex on land it already owns to house clients, caretakers and other service workers. Rentals, however, would also be open to the general public.

"Woods may designate approximately 25 percent of the apartments for people with acquired brain injury or intellectual disability who are able to live independently," said Cheryl Kauffman, Woods senior vice president of communications and development.

The proposal is back before the Middletown Zoning board Wednesday night at 7. The hearing is a continuation of the one started in April and is being held so the zoners can hear testimony from Woods as well as community members who wanted to speak as they review zoning variances needed for the project.

Some 150 have signed a petition opposing the housing plan.

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The petition argues the apartments would "increase traffic on already overburdened and unsafe Route 213, resulting in increased danger to local pedestrians and motorists" as well as "decrease values of surrounding homes by introducing an apartment use and residential density not in compliance with Middletown zoning ordinances."

Woods is asking for variances for the apartment use in an R-1 residential zone as well as to allow a density of 2.74 units per acre where a maximum of 2 dwelling units per acre is allowed. And a third variance requested is to allow a building with a height of 54 feet where building heights cannot exceed 35 feet.

The petition opposing approval of the variances also stated that the apartment building would detract from the viewscape and diminish the historic building called Beechwood that is located on the property. And the signers questioned what would become of the apartment building if Woods were to sell the property.

In addition to the petitions signed, 21 residents wrote letters to the township zoning director against the project while only five supported it.

One letter stated that none of the Woods executives live "in or near our neighborhoods ... Subsidized dense housing will overcrowd our neighborhood. It will lower the value of our home properties. It will totally change the integrity of our community."

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Another letter pointed out that the equity a homeowner had in their property formed a large part of their retirement savings and a reduction in the home value would reduce that nest egg.

Kauffman said in an email Friday that "the project will be built using low income tax credits and is considered an attainable housing project. It is our hope and expectation that people with acquired brain injury or developmental disabilities would live there in addition to Woods staff, and other working individuals who are wanting affordable housing in a desirable location. 

"We currently serve people with brain injury in apartments in Bensalem who come and go throughout the day to our Beechwood NeuroRehab program (located on the property) where they receive services.  We believe several of them will be interested in the apartment building where they can be closer to the services they are getting," Kauffman said.

She said the project anticipates funding through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency which allows tax credits to be used to attract investment in constructing much-needed attainable housing. "The tax credit is awarded to the for-profit entity/developer who agrees to construct attainable housing. The tax credits are then sold to equity investors ... This serves to reduce the debt and equity investment owners/developers would have to fund the construction."

Because Woods will have potentially vulnerable individuals living in the building, Woods will have influence in the tenant selection for the remaining apartments, she noted.

The issue of increased traffic may also be a major factor in opposition to the apartment project, as PennDOT is planning renovations to the Route 1 Expressway that could divert more traffic onto Route 413 as it intersects Route 213 in nearby Langhorne Borough, and Toll Brothers is applying to Langhorne Borough to build a totally separate 60-unit townhome community on Woods Services property near the intersection of these two busy roads in the borough. That plan is expected to come before the Langhorne Borough Zoning Hearing Board on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in borough hall.

More:Route 413 interchange plan creates controversy in Langhorne

Even if Woods obtains the necessary zoning variances for the apartment building in Middletown, the land development plan for the project would have to go before the township supervisors for final approval before construction could begin, said Jim Ennis, township building and zoning director.

Affordable housing has long been a controversial topic in suburban communities, and those in Bucks County are no exception.

Bucks County Commissioner Chairman Bob Harvie noted that with both the price of homes and interest rates rising, it's harder for many people working in Bucks to buy a home here. And demand for and cost of rental units has risen as well.

"Across the country there is a housing crisis preventing hard-working Americans from realizing the American Dream, and it’s affecting Bucks County as well. Housing prices are soaring beyond what many people can afford, and the impact is being felt by employers who cannot fill job openings because potential employees can’t afford to live in the area. We cannot allow our county to become a place where our healthcare professionals, mechanics, first responders and small business owners can’t afford to live," he said.

Marissa Christie, president and CEO of the United Way of Bucks County, said that the suburbs need service workers who staff restaurants and retail stores and tend to the ill or disabled in nursing homes and residential facilities like Woods but many of these people are individually considered an ALICE ― Asset Limited, Income Constrainted, Employed ― worker who cannot afford to live in the community in which they work. That's why the need for safe, secure and well-maintained affordable housing is so great, she said, but communities are conflicted about building it.

"It's a challenge because there are so many myths," she said. "There are often a number of barriers. The accumulating effect is that affordable housing is hard to build."

She said the United Way does "a lot of work in support of people we call ALICE. It's crucial to make affordable housing. All of us need these folks. We are interconnected. If we're pricing (service workers) out of communities, we're going to struggle," she said. "This is definitely a complicated issue."

More:Woods Services to sell Langhorne tract to Toll; build 42-unit complex on Middletown campus

The Middletown Zoning Hearing Board is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Raymond Mongillo Senior Community Center, 2140 Trenton Road.