Land Clearing Underway At Future Wawa Site In Newtown

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — Land clearing has officially begun at the site of the future 5,500- square-foot Wawa convenience store and gas station on the Newtown Bypass.

Heavy machinery moved onto the site this week to begin land clearing operations in preparation for the construction of the new store and gas station at Lower Silver Lake Road across from Crossing Community Church.

Last spring, the supervisors voted 3 to 2 to approve a stipulation and settlement agreement with Provco that ended ongoing litigation and allowed Provco to move forward with plans to build the convenience store on a 4.95 acre parcel of undeveloped land in the township's OR zoning district.

The agreement settled ongoing litigation between Provco and the township. It also resolved disputes over signage and the number of gas dispensers and added several new elements to the project, including EV charging stations and solar panels to power the new store and gas station.

Provco had sought a myriad of signage for the site, including a large, illuminated message center sign that would have displayed gasoline prices. It had also sought eight gas dispensers, according to township lawyer David Sander.

Under the agreement, Provco agreed to reduce the number of fueling dispensers to a maximum of six. It also agreed to an "extremely limited" number of signs, including two monument signs and two building-mounted signs, said Sander.

In addition, Provco agreed to install solar panels at the store and to include EV charging stations in its parking lot. Those requests came from Supervisor Elen Snyder who was the deciding vote on the project.

Newtown is one of the only Bucks County communities not to be serviced by the Pennsylvania-based convenience store. Wawa’s closest stores are in Yardley and Richboro.

The Delaware County-based convenience store had worked for years to find a location in the lucrative Newtown market to open a store and to fill in a gap in its service area.

The site of the new Wawa looking from Lower Silver Lake Road toward the Newtown Bypass.