Planners vote to deny Wawa project
Board cites traffic, safety concerns in refusing to recommend project
After months of discussion and several more hours of testimony Wednesday, the Upper Gwynedd Planning Commission voted to deny plans for a proposed Wawa fuel station and convenience store on the corner of Sumneytown Pike and West Point Pike.
“Without making a recommendation to approve or reject, the only solution that I guess we can make is to reject approval of the plan, so I guess that’s my motion,” said commission member John Lancaster.
Township officials have discussed since last summer a plan to demolish two existing buildings on the southwest corner of Sumneytown and West Point pike and replace them with a roughly 5,000-square-foot Wawa store, to be surrounded with eight fueling stations totalling 16 fuel pumps.
The team of consultants — developer Bruce Goodman, attorney John VanLuvanee, and traffic engineer Matt Hammond — behind that plan presented the latest version of that project to the commission Wednesday, in roughly three hours of testimony that was largely occupied by concerns about traffic and driver safety heading into and out of that property.
The consultants for the Wawa project proposed that traffic be restricted to right turns only from Sumneytown and from West Point Pike, and said while traffic does currently back up at that intersection, allowing right-in entry and exit would not make it worse.
“I personally do not feel that the right-out onto Sumneytown Pike that we proposed is an issue. Do queues extend past that driveway? Absolutely, but I would ask that you look all the way up and down Sumneytown Pike, and you will see that uses at intersections typically have queueing that extends past their driveways,” said Hammond.
“It’s just a fact of life. It exists,” he said.
Attorneys representing the township and Merck argued the plans did not do enough to prevent drivers from going the wrong way, across traffic, and creating a safety hazard.
“This isn’t convenience. This isn’t ease, this isn’t aesthetics. These are safety
concerns that, if approved, will plague this township and its citizens for a number of years, many years, and will get worse as the traffic increases,” said attorney Jim Garrity, on behalf of the township.
Andy Heinrich, Upper Gwynedd’s traffic engineer, said he thought the proposed location was a dangerous one because Sumneytown Pike currently has two lanes of high-volume traffic heading eastbound, and a right-turnonly driveway into the Wawa would be hard to see for oncoming drivers due to a curve in the road and a railroad bridge blocking the view.
“Aside from blowing up the bridge and removing it, is there any solution to the problem?” asked Garrity.
“I haven’t seen it yet,” Heinrich replied, and planning commission chairman Samuel Miller joked he hoped that was not a formal suggestion.
Attorney David Brooman spoke on behalf of Merck and said the company was worried about possible pollution in runoff from the site, as well as additional traffic the proposed Wawa would create during rush hour, and the safety hazard created by restricting left hand turns out of the proposed Wawa, forcing drivers to turn right down West Point Pike where they may try to make U-turns on Merck properties or in the face of oncoming traffic.
“It’s fine to suggest solutions to a safety hazard, but it’s not fine when that solution is to create additional safety hazards, particularly that no left turn during peak,” Brooman said.
Merck commissioned their own review of the applicant’s traffic study and stormwater management plans, and Brooman said that review found traffic had increased considerably after new Wawa stores were installed at three other intersections in Pennsylvania, with a significant number of illegal left turns to avoid traffic.
“The other hazard is the suggestion to this board that they can put people out on the road, to make a right, with nowhere to go, and to make the choice of illegal U-turns or turning around on someone’s property,” Brooman said.
“With all due respect, if they’re making a suggestion to alleviate a safety hazard, they ought to come up with a solution, not create a new one,” he said.
Attorney Jim Garrity argued on behalf of the township that the planning commission could approve a plan with problems still to be addressed, but not with as many as
“This isn’t convenience. This isn’t ease, this isn’t aesthetics. These are safety concerns that, if approved, will plague this township and its citizens for a number of years, many years, and will get worse as the traffic increases.”
Jim Garrity, attorney
the various reviews have raised on this project.
“In this case, of the original 62 deficiencies from the township engineer, there’s still 30 that are open,” he said.
The location near the bridge and curve creates a short line of sight for oncoming drivers, and the heavy traffic westbound could encourage drivers to try to make illegal left turns from the Wawa, across two lanes into two others.
“They’ll have to shoot between moving vehicles, or pray for courtesy gaps, and bring traffic to a halt if they don’t get T-boned,’ he said.
“Maybe the best thing to do is nothing, or to say the project in the current design is not ready for approval,” Garrity said.
After lengthy discussions, the planning commission voted to deny the plan, and said the applicant can make their case to the township commissioners. The commissioners will hear the plans for themselves, and could approve or deny, when they next meet on July 24.
“I think we listened to both sides, I think we’ve been patient, we’ve listened to everybody here. How much more time can we give? We’ve given it enough time, I think we tried our best,” Lancaster said.
Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners next meet at 7 p.m. on July 18, with their next action meeting scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on July 24, both at the township administration building, 1 Parkside Place. For more information visit www.UpperGwynedd.org.