Wawa Land Development Plan Back On The Agenda In Newtown Township

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — After a number of extensions, the Newtown Township Board of
Supervisors this week are again scheduled to review and vote on preliminary as final plans for a Wawa convenience store on the Newtown Bypass.

The plan review is scheduled take place on Wednesday, October 26 beginning at 7 p.m. at the Newtown Township building on Durham Road.

Provco Pinegood LLP is seeking land development approval to build a convenience store and gas station at Lower Silver Lake Road and the Newtown Bypass.

The last time the plan was before the township was in April when the planning commission recommended denial of the plans.

After several hours of review, the commission couldn’t muster enough votes for a recommendation to approve, deadlocking at three votes in favor and three votes against. The tie vote resulted in a de facto recommendation of denial, according to solicitor Jerry Schenkman.

Provco’s plan for the nearly five acre site depicts a 5,585-square-foot food market with six fuel dispensers.

Plans show the store facing the Bypass with front and rear store access, pedestrian walkways, bike racks, one electric vehicle charging station, two air pump stations and 60 parking spaces, including three designated for ADA.

Access to the store would be off of Lower Silver Lake Road via a right in entrance only and a full intersection at the entrance to the store across from Crossing Community Church.

If the supervisors approve the plan, Provco would be cleared to break ground on the project. If the board denies the plan, the township and Provco will end up in court delaying the construction of the project until the litigation is resolved.

In September 2020, the supervisors opened the door to the Wawa project when they voted 3-2 to pass a municipal curative amendment that added a combination gas station and convenience store as a special exception in the township’s office/research zoning district.

The amendment was also aimed at addressing a validity challenge filed by Provco against the township for not providing for a combination fueling station and convenience store in its zoning ordinance.

The challenge prompted Newtown Township, working in conjunction with Wrightstown and Upper Makefield - the three municipalities that make up lthe Newtown Area Zoning Jointure - to develop the curative amendment to its Joint Municipal Zoning Ordinance (JMZO) to remedy the oversight.

The sale of gasoline as an accessory use to a retail operation had not been permitted in the office-research zone, or for that matter anywhere in the Join"t Municipal Zoning Ordinance (JMZO) making the ordinance challengeable, Proco’s land use attorney told planners in 2019. The company followed through, filing a challenge with the Newtown Township Zoning Hearing Board over the exclusion.

The ordinance developed by the township limits the use by special exception to a minimum four acre lot in the office research zone in Newtown Township and places limitations on the square footage of any proposed store, limits the number of fueling dispensers up to a maximum of eight
based on acreage of the site without a variance, imposes restrictions on signage and lighting and set parameters for parking, buffering, etc.

Passage of the E30 Ordinance allowed Provco to request a special exception from the township for the development of a combination convenience store and gas station.

The zoning board approved the special exception in March.