Wawa Construction Underway In Hatboro

HATBORO, PA —It's a sore subject among borough officials.

While the borough looks to move its operations back to Lohler Hall next month, something right below the historic structure is taking shape. And it's taking shape at the borough's busiest intersection where York Road meets with Horsham Road.

Work is underway for a 5,585-square-foot Wawa convenience store at the corner of Horsham and York roads with plans calling for six gas pumping stations and 54 parking spots.

The Wawa isn't expected to be completed until the end of the year with the building taking at least six months to construct, borough officials said.

While the brick color varies from store to store, Hatboro’s store will be a red brick building, borough officials said.

For several weeks, the foundation for the convenience store has been put in place with the dirt smoothed over the fenced-in property as motorists drive by where the Wawa is planned on the right on Horsham Road as one enters Hatboro.

The project is nothing borough officials wanted.

"As the majority of our residents know, the Borough spent years in a zoning battle against Wawa due to a deficiency in Hatboro’s zoning code," Borough Manager Diane Hegele has said. "This process was time-consuming and costly, only for the Borough to lose to Wawa in the end."

In late January, the Borough Council adopted a Town Center ordinance in an attempt to have better control over its zoning laws with the main goal of preventing another Wawa.

"This has been a journey to help improve our zoning and to protect us from things like Wawa," Councilwoman Nicole McMenamin told the crowd at the Jan. 23 public hearing.

Borough officials provided Patch with a timeline of the Wawa project from the court decision in 2020:

• The Commonwealth Court issued its decision on the Wawa matter, ruling in Wawa’s favor.
• Wawa made their land development application in May 2021.
• Planning Commission meetings took place beginning June 8, 2021, to review the Land Development Application.
• Borough Council voted to approve the Wawa land development application in August 2021
• Wawa began building in the fall 2022
• The gas tank installation is scheduled for the spring.
• After the tank installation and site work is completed, there’s an estimated six-month construction time for the convenience store building.
• As of right now, Wawa won't open until the end of the year.

In May 2019, the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County ruled in favor of the developers of the "super-Wawa," a convenience store that features gas pumps.

The court said that the borough's zoning hearing board "unconstitutionally excluded a legitimate land use" by denying Hatboro York Road, LLC the right to build the Wawa.

At its April 24 meeting, the Borough Council approved the release of $247,362 to Wawa for the work it has done so far. The borough holds a line of credit that it reimburses Wawa for to hold the company responsible for getting work on the project completed, officials said.