Plans for new Wawa revised
In update, commercial building is removed
Plans are continuing to take shape for a new Wawa fuel station and convenience store on the site of a current Lukoil station and Wawa at Sumneytown Pike and Forty Foot Road in Towamencin.
“This plan has evolved, I think in a positive way, from when we originally started, and that evolution has to keep happening to work through these issues,” said attorney Bill Dion of developer The Verrichia Co.
Last summer developers from Verrichia first presented plans to combine the current location of the Lukoil on that corner with the Wawa store just to the north into one larger parcel of just over two acres, with a
roughly 5,500-square-foot Wawa convenience store behind six fueling pumps with a total of 12 fueling stations. Early versions of those plans presented last year featured a second freestanding commercial building located behind the proposed Wawa, but a revised version Dion presented to Towamencin’s supervisors on Wednesday night removed the rear building and reconfigured the layout of the site.
“The plans are fairly similar. The buildings have shifted a little bit, we’ve opened it up a little more, provided more parking where the other use previously was,” Dion said.
In the original plan, the Wawa store was located near the center of the lot, with parking and driveway access surrounding it on all four sides. The newer plan shifts the Wawa building slightly north, closer to the adjacent Walgreens pharmacy, to create a new through driveway running west to east between the store and the fuel pumps, and providing a connection route to the adjacent properties.
“We believe it will flow better, we believe the circulation is better, and that was the evolution of it,” Dion said.
In addition to the new layout, Dion said, talks at the township’s planning commission largely focused on the buffering along the corner of Sumneytown and Forty Foot, and whether a decorative feature such as a wall featuring the township’s name could be installed on the corner facing drivers exiting the nearby Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
“I would characterize the overriding theme as, ‘Hey, this is a significant intersection for us, we want to make sure it looks nice,’” Dion said.
He and township Engineer Tom Zarko discussed the various review letters for the newest version of the project, and Dion said much
of the discussion focused on two topics: traffic studies showing the safety of making left turns from the station’s driveway onto Sumneytown Pike, and the documentation for cross-easements allowing the adjacent property to use the driveway running through the Wawa site. During a back-and-forth discussion, Zarko said those issues were noted in review letters several months ago and not addressed formally, and Dion said he thought those questions were more appropriately handled later in the land development process, but the developer would provide any documents the township and its consultants want to see.
Several waivers will also likely be required during the land development prices, Dion said, largely to do with the impervious coverage and driveway access and width that already exist under the Lukoil layout.
“The property has a multitude of existing nonconformities, so ultimately we’d have to strike that balance,” Dion said.
“The development will leave it more complaint than the property you have out there today. That’s the uniqueness of this project, when you have a multitude of nonconformities out there,” he said.
Several supervisors also asked for more details about the traffic volume, and said they thought it would increase dramatically with a new Wawa at the corner instead of the current Lukoil, which sees little traffic, and an older and smaller Wawa next door now.
“I think the Wawa is going to do better than the Lukoil. You’re going to increase sales, but when you take the two separate unit that are there now, and combine them into a Super Wawa, it’s not going to be ‘one plus one equals two,’” said supervisor Rich Marino.
“You’ll see in the traffic study, but it’s fairly comparable,” Dion replied.
Supervisor Dan Littley said the worst traffic he sees at that intersection now is around 7 a.m. on weekdays, and suggested Dion direct his traffic study focus on those peak hours, which the applicant vowed to do. Marino said he thought all of those customers would come with complaints to the board if the traffic flow and entrances and exits were not addressed properly.
“We only have one chance to get this right, and if we get it wrong, the accountability is sitting right there. They’re not looking at you, they’re going to be looking at us,” Marino said.
“We really have to make sure we do our due diligence, so bear with us,” he said.
Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7:30 p.m. on May 9 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road.