New Wawa planned

Proposal includes store and fuel center for Mainland Pointe

Plans for the Mainland Pointe development originally included a convenience store/fuel center, but those plans subsequently went through changes, including removing the store and fuel center, engineer Rick Mast said at the Oct. 18 Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors morning work session.

“Now Wawa’s back in the game for this property,” Mast said.

The plan includes an about 5,000 square-foot building and fuel center with a canopy at the intersection of Sumneytown Pike

and a planned extension of Quarry Road, he said. Access to the store will be from internal roads in Mainland Pointe and with a right in/right out driveway on Sumneytown Pike, he said.

“It’s a conditional use application for the fueling center, so that’s the first step that we’re going to make,” Mast said.

The application for the conditional use hearing should be done in time for the planning commission to review it in December, he said.

Michael Cooley, of The Provco Group, and Joe Botta, of Pineville Properties, the developer for the plans, outlined the plans at the Oct. 18 meeting.

In answer to board member Chris Canavan’s question

of whether the fuel center would include diesel fuel, Cooley said it would, but said the centers are not designed for large trucks, such as tri-axles and tractor trailers.

“We don’t want large trucks loitering and hanging out,” Cooley said. “This is more like a neighborhood-type store.”

In answer to Canavan’s question of whether the existing Harleysville Wawa that is nearby would be closed after the new store opened, Cooley said he doesn’t know. In many cases, Wawa leaves both stores open, at least initially, he said.

The existing one is wellrun, Canavan said, but said, “It’s a little dangerous to pull through the parking lot on that store.”

The interior layout of the store shown on the plans is similar to the Wawa at Route 309 and Unionville

Pike, Canavan said.

That follows the prototype, Cooley said.

“They really built their model around the kitchen,” he said. “It’s really become food service, fast food.”

In answer to a question about the canopy and other outdoor lighting, Cooley said Wawa has the same lighting designer for all its stores.

“It’s almost like custom design lighting, depending on what you’re adjacent to, what the township codes are,” he said.

The lighting is designed to shine downward and uses LED (light-emitting diodes) systems, he said.

“We’re very sensitive about lighting our neighbors,” Cooley said.

Mast said the Wawa is at the most remote part of the site from any neighboring homes.

“It’s also naturally going to be buffered by everything else in between,” he said.

The plans include installation of a new traffic light at the intersection, Mast and Cooley said.

Cooley and Botta said they are buying the pad site and constructing the building, after which Wawa will have a long-term lease. Wawa takes about six months to get the building ready after the construction is completed, they said.

Construction could begin next year with the store opening by the end of 2019, they said.

Board member Phil Heilman said he’s had a lot of people ask if Wawa planned to open a store there and said he thinks people will be glad to see it.

Wawa is opening one to two stores a week between here and Florida, Cooley said.

“I’m still looking for one that isn’t busy,” board Chairman Doug Gifford said. “I haven’t found it.”