Township Eyes Easement on Supervisor's Land

Doylestown Township's engineer will examine plans to permanently preserve land owned by township supervisor Shawn Touhill in a deal that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to Touhill.

Doylestown Township supervisors on Tuesday directed township engineer Mario Canales to review plans submitted to the board and determine exactly how much and which parts of the 9-plus acre parcel on Sandy Ridge Road would be preserved under the proposed easement.

Four of the five supervisors approved the review; Touhill abstained.

Supervisors' chair Barbara Lyons said the open space deal had been in the works for years before Touhill won a seat on the board in November 2011.

"The application was in well before Mr. Touhill had any intentions of running for supervisors," Lyons said. "He’s not participating in this other than as an applicant."

Touhill, a local developer, owns a little more than 9 acres on Sandy Ridge Road next to . He won approval from the township supervisors years ago to subdivide the land and build seven houses on it.

But he changed his mind and later applied to preserve most of the property - a little more than 7 acres - through the Bucks County Open Space Preservation Program.

Approved overwhelmingly by Bucks County voters at the polls in 2007, the $87 million bond issue raised money to preserve farms, fields and natural spaces across the county.

Under the municipal part of the program, each of Bucks' townships and boroughs received an allotment. Doylestown Township's allocation came to $620,408.

In the years since, the township has reviewed other applications for land preservation. None have been as attractive as the Touhill property, Lyons said Tuesday.

"This is a valuable piece of property," Lyons said, adding, "We’ve looked at lots of open space potential (deals). Sandy Ridge is the one that’s most accessible to the public."

Touhill plans to preserve more than 7 acres of the 9-plus acre parcel. The preserved land would be used for farming; on the remaining land, he hopes to build a farmstand to sell the produce he grows.

But exactly which parts of the property would be preserved and which wouldn't led to some discussion Tuesday night.

Supervisor Rick Colello said he opposed preserving land at the back of the parcel, thereby leaving the land closest to Sandy Ridge Road unpreserved. That arrangement someday could lead to a house being built on the unpreserved portion, he worried.

Plus, the taxpayers who foot the bill for the open space program should at least get to the see the land they're paying to preserve, he said.

"I don’t see how it benefits the taxpayer to pay tax money for that back end portion when they’re not going to see and enjoy it," Colello said.

Lyons said Canales' review will help determine which parts the township would like preserved; Touhill said he "would gladly include as much as possible" in the preservation easement.

Township solictor Jeff Garton told the board they could request sketch plans showing options for preserving various parts of the property.

Lyons said the deal is a good use of the township's portion of the county money.

"This is our first opportunity to spend it on a property," she said, adding, "There are going to be seven less houses (built) here. And the open space board was pretty happy about this applicant."

The 9-plus acre property was appraised at an average of $750,000, Lyons said, but the price tag of the easement will be based on $70,000 per acre. The seven acre easement would then be valued at about $490,000.

Bucks County's open space program pays only up to 75 percent of the value of the easement. In this case, Touhill has agreed to accept that amount, which would be $367,500.

The final selling price of the easement would have to come back to the supervisors for approval.