Wawa Expansion On Lanes Mill Road Approved In Brick

BRICK, NJ — The Wawa that's been a fixture at the corner of Lanes Mill Road and Burnt Tavern Road for years is getting a makeover.

This isn't your ordinary new-paint-and-tile job, however. The existing store, just off Garden State Parkway exit 91, will be torn down and replaced by a larger store with fuel pumps, after the Brick Township Board of Adjustment approved the project Wednesday night.

The project will include a 4,736-square-foot store and 12 fuel pumps, according to details reported in the Asbury Park Press, and will be built on a parcel that includes the existing store and the neighboring property that previously housed a Chinese restaurant and a pizzeria. The neighboring parcel was purchased in 2018 by Lanes Mill Developers, according to a Brick Shorebeat report.

The approval for the project came over the objections of the owners of the Shell station that sits across Lanes Mill Road from the Wawa, along with those of Judith and Joseph Gass, whose home sits across Burnt Tavern Road from the side of the Wawa property.

Attorney Ed Liston, who represented the owners of the Shell station property, called it "zoning by variance" and said the township's master plan makes no provisions for a project like the Wawa. He also called it "a gross overdevelopment of the site."

"This is a gross overdevelopment even by Wawa's own standards," Liston said, noting that similar Wawas have been built on properties that were at least 2 acres.

"This is a 1.2-acre site," Liston said. "There's no need for this."

The store and parking area, which will have 9-foot-wide parking stalls, will result in impervious coverage on 86 percent of the site, with the building occupying 18 percent of the site. It will have improved stormwater management, according to testimony.

Judith Gass expressed concerns about the impact on traffic in the area, which includes the changed configuration for vehicles getting on and off the Parkway. She also expressed concerns that kids hanging out at the skateboard park at the newly renovated Bernie Cooke Park will be in danger if they leave the park to go to Wawa for drinks or snacks.

"It was crazy to put a skateboard park there," Gass said. "It’s a real disaster."

"It’s going to be a hardship to everyone," she said.

John Jackson, attorney for Lanes Mill Developers LLC, said the Shell station property owners objected to the project because they see it as competition.

"It’s going to be a terrific facility," Jackson said. "It’s the appropriate use for the appropriate site."

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