Idea To Bring Wawa To Newtown On May 10 Supervisors Agenda

NEWTOWN -- It's no secret that many Newtown residents want to see a Wawa open up here. After all, who doesn't crave cheap gas, quick coffee and creating hoagies with a touch screen? But should a large-scale convenience store really call Newtown home?

One township supervisor says yes, and he's presented an idea to make it happen.

During a Supervisors meeting on Wednesday, board member Phil Calabro offered an idea: Newtown Township should lease or sell two acres of Silver Lake Park, located off the Bypass, to Wawa or another similar convenience store chain.

The idea, the supervisors decided, will be discussed as an agenda item at the next meeting, scheduled for May 10. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. at the township municipal building.

Patch caught up with Calabro on Thursday, and he shared his vision, which at this point is merely an idea with no concrete plans attached he stressed.

Calabro says the seven-acre Silver Lake Park, located at Newtown Bypass and Campus Drive, is under utilized. "No one uses it and it collects pigeon poop basically," he said. So he came up with this idea, which he believes would benefit township residents all while generating income.

Calabro says Wawa usually targets two acres for the stores they build, which are now always with gas stations. This piece of property already has an intersection and a driveway going back, and it "seemed like a good fit," he said.

The rest of the park would remain as open space under his vision, Calabro said.

"If we were to lease it, that’s a very desirable piece of property," he said, estimating the township could generate "tens of thousands" a month as the landowner.

Of course, Calabro expects there to be doubts, including that traffic would suffer.

However, he believes most of the traffic will be "incidental," meaning it would be passing through the area anyway. Further, he notes, at one time Lockheed Martin had more than 1,000 workers traveling to its location right in that same area. "That never seemed to be a problem because of the intersection and traffic light," he said.

Following the meeting, Supervisor Jen Dix sought input in a public post on Facebook. Resulting feedback was mixed. Many, as predicted, envisioned a Wawa would cause traffic troubles in that location. Others said they would prefer the bypass in Newtown Township to remain free from retail stores.

Others, though, seemed giddy at the prospect of a Wawa shorti. "Yes yes yes yes yes. Did I mention, yes?," one response on Dix's page said.

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