Hearing planned for proposed Wawa

LOWER SALFORD » A conditional use hearing for a proposed new Wawa is expected to take place at the Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors’ Feb. 7 meeting.

The township recently received the application, Mary West, assistant township manager, said at the board’s Nov. 15 morning work session.

The township planning commission is scheduled to review the application at its Dec. 5 meeting, with the possibility of discussing it further in January if needed, she said.

The conditional use hearing is for a gasoline fueling facility in connection with a convenience retail store, she said.

The about 5,000 square-foot store and fueling center with a canopy is planned for the intersection of Sumneytown Pike and a planned extension of Quarry Road in the Mainland Pointe development, development representatives said in an October presentation.

The mixed-use development began as Berkshire Court with 39 single family homes built on Buckingham Circle 17 years ago and plans for commercial development on the rest of the site. After then-developer TH Properties went through bankruptcy, though, the undeveloped portion of the tract went to new ownership and the new Mainland Pointe name. Plans for the undeveloped section presented earlier this year now include 18 single family homes, 60 apartments in five three-story apartment buildings, an 8,800 square-foot retail/office building with a drive-through window and space for additional commercial development along Sumneytown Pike.

At the November meeting, board member Chris Canavan said traffic is one of the main issues to be considered.

“There’s only two driveways into this Wawa, and does that adequately address the distribution of the traffic so it doesn’t become a nightmare?” Canavan asked.

“The neighbors are going to come out and they’re going to talk about traffic,” he said.

“Well, I would, too,” board Chairman Doug Gifford said.

The planned Wawa would be in the commercial space by Sumneytown Pike.

In answer to a question at the

November 15 meeting of whether any other plans for commercial uses there had been received, Township Manager Joe Czajkowski said there were none so far, but said the Wawa could be the impetus for other businesses to also move there.

Gifford and West, meanwhile, recalled that there were other previous proposals for the site that never materialized, including one for a multiplex movie theater.

That would have required a parking lot covering most of the site, Gifford said.

“It was wall-to-wall macadam,” he said.

“It was ridiculous,” West said.