Wawa heads to zoning board

Hearing on appeal for variances begins Wednesday

CONSHOHOCKEN — A zoning hearing on Wawa’s appeal for variances to build a convenience store with gasoline pumps has been scheduled for 7 p.m., Wednesday, at the Washington Fire Co. banquet hall.

The scheduled hearing is the third attempt by the Conshohocken Zoning Hearing Board to hold the first hearing of what are expected to be several public hearings on the controversial proposal for the convenience store company. On two previous hearing dates, one member of the five-member board could not attend and the petitioner asked for the hearing to be postponed so all five members could hear the zoning case.

Last year, the developer for Wawa, Provco Pineville Fayette LP of Villanova, asked Conshohocken Borough Council to rezone the parcel at 1109 Fayette St. to allow retail and gasoline sales and to change the zoning map to accommodate the change.

Borough council rejected the requested

zoning change in April 2013 at the conclusion of a 90-minute public hearing in which most residents objected to the zoning change and the proposed Wawa. A public petition opposed the zoning change and several community organizations rallied opposition to the Wawa proposal. Council voted 6-1 against the requested zoning changes.

The construction proposal includes a 4,149-square-foot singlestory market on the former E.F. Moore Chevrolet dealership site with an animated sign for displaying gasoline prices. The plan includes two driveways on Fayette Street, one driveway on Harry Street, 10 gasoline pumps and 49 parking spaces on the 1.45-acre parcel, which is located in the R-O residential office zone.

The application for the zoning variances and special exceptions was filed on Oct. 1. A Sept. 19, 2013, letter from Dennis Moore attached to the application affirmed that E.F. Moore Inc. officials have entered into a lease agreement with Provco Pineville Fayette LP for an initial 20-year period, with options to extend the ground lease for six consecutive extension terms of five years each.

“The current use of the property is a legally nonconforming use in the R-O district,” the application said. “Moore has maintained the existing nonconforming use and has never abandoned its use of the property as a retail automobile dealership.

“Applicant intends to remove all existing buildings, paving and light fixtures and to reduce the impervious coverage from 100 percent to 86.4 percent. To allay any traffic and safety concerns, access will be limited to two driveways along Fayette Street and a driveway to Eleventh Street via Harry Street.”

Wawa has asked for a special exception to allow for a change in the existing nonconforming use from a retail automobile dealership with underground storage tanks, service and parts, to a retail convenience store with fuel pumps, a canopy, air pump, ATM, parking and accessory uses including prepared food, take-out food and underground storage tanks. If the special exception is not granted, the applicant has asked for a use variance to permit the establishment of a retail conve- nience store, with fuel pumps, a canopy and parking.

Wawa has also asked for 86.4 percent impervious coverage where 50 percent impervious coverage is required when an original building is demolished. The applicant has asked to continue the nonconforming use of parking in the front yard of the parcel.

The applicant asked for dimensional variances to allow variable, fuel pump signs on a monument sign that includes changeable copy.

Current regulations restrict retail businesses to one 10-square-foot sign. The applicant asked for a 50-square-foot monument sign and a second, 66.7-square-foot buildingmounted sign.

If the zoning board rejects the requests for special exceptions and variances, the application includes a validity challenge to the borough’s zoning code as “unconstitutionally exclusionary as it applies to the property.”

Wawa has argued that the change in use is permitted “where it is equally appropriate or more appropriate to the district, is no more detrimental than the existing nonconforming use, and is not less appropriate and is not more detrimental than the existing nonconforming use.”

The application pointed out that the R-O district is designed to protect existing Victorian and early 20th-century buildings and the residential nature of the district.

“Prior to and at the time the R-O ordinance was passed, the property did not contain a Victorian or early 20th-century home,” the application said. “The property has not been used for residential purposes since at least 1955.”

Wawa said the pro- posed plan would increase the sideyard setback from 2.4 feet (5 feet is required) to 66 feet. There is no buffer strip on Harry Street or Fayette Street, but the proposed plan will include a 10-foot buffer on both streets.

Wawa claimed there would be a hardship created if it was required to build single- family detached or semidetached dwellings, a municipal or government office or any of the accessory uses allowed with conditional use approvals in the R-O district.

Other conditional uses allowed in the R-O zone include professional offices, a studio for photography or music, a funeral home, a bed and breakfast and a day-care facility.

“The borough revitalization report and the Comprehensive Plan, recommend the borough encourage the development, support business reinvestment, and support a cohesive and attractively built environment,” the application states. “The R-O Ordinance, as applied to the property, frustrates these fundamental purposes. Rather, under the smoke screen of allegedly preserving Victorian and early 20th Century buildings, the R-O District prevents development, discourages business reinvestment and perpetuates a hodge-podge of construction, thwarting all efforts of the Moore Brothers to develop the property.”

Given its location, large size and frontage, the parcel, unlike any other parcel in the R-O district, is uniquely positioned to accommodate new business development, while enhancing the existing uses of the surrounding parcels, the application says.

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