Wawa plan sent back to Planning Board

Wawa plan sent back
to Planning Board
Store still seeking
controversial
parking lot expansion
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK — They’re back again.

Wawa representatives have returned to the Planning Board once again, seeking permission to add 15 parking spots to the parking lot outside its store at Ryders Lane and Milltown Road.

This is the second time Wawa has made the request, but this time the company has a lawsuit behind it. In the summer of 2002, Wawa was rejected by the board when applying to increase the number of parking spots at its store from 35 to 50. Wawa has since filed a lawsuit against the township, and state Superior Court Judge Edward Ryan subsequently remanded the case back to the township board.

The application is scheduled to be heard at the board’s meeting at 8 p.m. on Jan. 14.

Wawa’s plan met resistance from many residents of the surrounding area who argued that the store was really seeking to make progress in a suspected long-term plan to build a larger store, complete with gas pumps, at the location. By adding parking spaces, the company could argue it was under-utilizing its property and should be allowed to build a larger store, residents said.

Wawa had previously approached the board with an application to build the larger store with gas pumps, but the plan met fierce resistance from residents and was withdrawn.

"The community has stated quite strongly that they don’t want this," said Charlie Eisenberger, co-chairmen of the Ryders Lane Civic Association. "Wawa wouldn’t go to this expense to just expand a parking lot. We feel it’s a facade."

A Wawa official told the Sentinel in the 2001 that the company had no plans to build a larger store or to add a gas station.

In denying the application in 2002, the board said Wawa could not prove it needed the additional parking spots. Some board members and residents said the lot was never even full.

According to a township ordinance, the 3,488-square-foot store requires only 24 spots.

Mayor William Neary, who also sits on the Planning Board, said at the time the application was denied because township professionals felt it was contrary to the town’s design standards.

Wawa’s lawyer, Walter Toto, Monroe Township, filed the suit on October 2002.

According to the application, Wawa is asking for permission to combine the store’s existing lot with that of the recently closed China Moon restaurant, which Wawa has purchased.

The Wawa store currently has 35 spaces and is seeking to have 50.

The China Moon restaurant is to the south of the Wawa, along Ryders Lane. The former restaurant would be demolished as part of the plan and the parking lot would be expanded, the application said.

In addition, the store’s parking lot entrance from Ryders Lane would be moved further from Milltown Road. It is argued that the move would lessen traffic problems at the intersection. Wawa has frontage on Ryders Lane and also abuts Milltown Road.

The new driveway entrance would be 30 feet wide, and located about 40 feet from the property’s southerly border.

Wawa is seeking a number of variances, including minimum lot width, the parking driveway setback, the frontage landscape buffer and frontage on Milltown Road

The minimum lot width required is 350 feet, while the application proposes 321 feet. The front landscape buffer requirement is 20 feet, but the application includes only 6.5 feet of buffering.

There is only 119 feet of frontage on Milltown Road, but that is a pre-existing non- conformity.