Drive-thru, more parking and (maybe) houses coming to Langhorne Dunkin' Donuts

A Dunkin’ Donuts shoehorned onto the corner of a busy Middletown intersection will get some breathing room for a drive-thru, bigger parking and five new houses next door.

M. Properties, LLC, of Ewing, New Jersey, which owns the coffee shop at 628 W. Maple Avenue and Old Lincoln Highway, also owns a small parcel behind the store. It has submitted plans for five single-family houses on a cul-de-sac, according to records in the township zoning office.

The township Zoning Hearing Board approved variances for the entire project, but the board of supervisors has only OK'd the drive-thru, said Jim Ennis, Middletown’s director of building and planning. It's unclear when the houses will get final approval.

"There are safety concerns about emergency services. There are a lot of issues with the configuration of the cul-de-sac and the configuration of the houses. The fire marshal had particular issues with how do you get fire trucks and ambulances down there in an orderly manner.

"How do you get them in, and how do you get them out.”

Traffic patterns are also a concern.

“The traffic engineer had a lot of issues with vehicles getting in and out of (the development),” Ennis said.

“I think after that, they are going back to the drawing board for a new plan,” he said.

Mitesh Patel, who said he manages the coffee shop, confirmed in a brief phone call that he and business partner Nash Patel, own the store and parcel next to it, and paused the house development.

Nash Patel was unavailable for comment. Mitesh Patel said he would forward this news organization’s contact info to him “to give you more details,” but he did not return the request on the house construction by publication time.

Some neighbors said they don’t mind the improvements to the Dunkin’ shop, but are leery about more houses at a convergence of three roads, Maple Avenue, Old Lincoln Highway and Hulmeville Road.

“I’ve never seen traffic so busy around here. It wasn’t like this when we moved here,” said Shane Verna, who moved to Old Lincoln Highway, down the street from the Dunkin’, some 35 years ago.

“You put more houses, it’s more cars, more danger,” he said. “My dog was hit by a car right there. She got off her leash, and people just fly down this road.”

Others complained about old shade trees cut down, worry about rainwater runoff caused by the new development, and griped about the lack of a silt fence to keep soil from washing down the street in heavy rains.

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“We were under the impression that they were only supposed to take down certain trees on that property, but as you see, all of them are down,” said Rose Kane, who lives across the street from the site of the proposed houses.

“They should have a silt fence up, too,” she said.

The only things standing are a run-down three-bedroom house and a two-story outbuilding owned by Richard and Mable Wisneski, which was purchased in November 1948, and sold in January 2021 to the present owner, according to county tax records.

JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Drive-thru, bigger lot and housing planned at Dunkin on West Maple Ave. in Langhorne