Collingdale zoners OK proposal for new super Wawa

COLLINGDALE » The Collingdale Zoning Board voted 2-1 to grant variances to a proposed super Wawa convenience store in the borough, but with conditions.

Board members Ed Corbett and Colin McCann approved 19 motions for relief to Lordston Equities Inc., the Mount Laurel, N.J.-based firm which applied for the variances for a 5,500 square-foot store on MacDade Boulevard that will have 12 gas pumps. The demolition of an old funeral home at 910 MacDade and four residential houses on Upland Terrace are part of the proposed plan for the site.

Variances were needed in regard to the number of parking spaces, retail usage with gasoline dispensing stations, front and side yard setback, building height and 14 variances for signage within the residentially-zoned proposed site encompassing 8.8 acres.

Patricia Felker cast the sole no vote.

The approval of the variances are contingent to nine conditions the borough set forth to Lordston: No access point from Upland Terrace; truck deliveries from the MacDade Boulevard entrance with no truck traffic directed to/ from the Clifton Avenue access point (with PennDOT accordance); no left turns onto Clifton Avenue from the site; buffer and vegetation planting shall be no less than 6 feet high;

Applicant and successor shall work with the borough to develop landscaping to reduce the store’s visual grievances to its neighbors; applicant to exhume and handle disposing of any dead animals found on the subject lots; applicant and successor to work with the borough for traffic signage on property (for the access road from the Clifton Avenue entrance); applicant and successor to comply with borough ordinances; and approval subject to a land development plan in accordance with the reasonable conditions.

Developer Joel Kepner said after the board’s vote he was delighted with the decision, calling zoners’ conditions reasonable and that he will be working with all governmental agencies to make sure it’s the “best possible development.”

The board’s vote comes exactly one week after a hearing was held on the plan. Residents were against the proposal, citing safety concerns of the access road that goes behind borough hall from Clifton Avenue to the store, traffic concerns and an entrance on Upland Terrace, a narrow dead-end street.

Felker continued at Wednesday’s meeting addressing her concerns about the access road and the safety of children who play and gather at the athletic field behind borough hall. Kepner said the road is necessary because it is rendered as a corner location and that the road separates parking for athletic field usage and other municipal parking usage.

The new store will replace a Wawa presently at 930 MacDade Blvd.