After more than 18 months of discussion and planning, Lower Makefield Township officials have approved a 47-home development on the former Wright Farm.
Local homebuilder DeLuca Homes bought the 49-acre parcel in 2024. Construction is expected to take between two and three years.
Approximately 12.67 acres of preserved open space around the homes was originally intended to remain active farmland, but after discussion with township officials, more than 1,000 trees are to be planted instead.
A look at a DeLuca Homes plan to build 47 single-family homes on the former Wright Farm in Lower Makefield Township.
The new neighborhood is to sit west of I-295, just north of Yardley-Newtown Road. It’s to be built directly south of more than 100 existing homes from Bridle Estates.
The developers are also to add more of a natural buffer on the property’s northern edge between the two neighborhoods.
An arborist evaluated the health of the existing trees on the property, the developers told township officials. Any unhealthy trees are to be replaced.
Why have neighbors opposed the Wright Farm project?
The landscaping plan for the Wright Farm Subdivision includes planting more than 1,000 trees around the new housing development.
A main point of contention for the development’s neighbors in Bridle Estates is that the sole access point to the new homes will be through their neighborhood on Surrey Lane, which is currently a dead-end road.
Looping around the southeastern edge of the property, Patterson Lane is to remain open for farm equipment and emergency vehicles only. All construction-related access is to be exclusively through Patterson Lane.
The developers have said throughout the process that they’ve reached out the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation about possible traffic lights or other access points to the development, but all these ideas were rejected.
Most recently, the developers proposed looking into adding a right-turn-only exit onto the bypass west of the traffic signal at Stony Hill Road. Township officials, however, said they weren’t interested.
As a result, the developers said, Surrey Lane is their only real option.
The most recent traffic studies that the developers have completed have indicated that the addition of 47 homes will have an “insignificant” impact on the level of service to the Bridle Estates community, according to project engineer Justin Geonnotti.
Lacey Latch is the development reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer. She can be reached at LLatch@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Wright Farm housing development: 47 homes approved in Lower Makefield