Ferguson Township approves preliminary Wawa plans despite pushback from residents

Preliminary plans for a Wawa in Ferguson Township were unanimously approved by the township’s supervisors Tuesday, and despite recent plan improvements, residents in a neighborhood near the development still have concerns.

The proposed 5,330-square-foot gas station would be located at 169 W. Aaron Drive — formerly a Sutliff Buick GMC Cadillac dealership and Delaney Collision Center — and would include six fueling stations for 12 vehicles, a canopy over the stations, underground fuel tanks, an air station, a trash corral and 60 parking spots.

Also included are three entry points — one on Bergman Boulevard, one on West Aaron Drive that Wawa traffic could use to turn into the nearby Overlook Heights neighborhood and another right-turn-in/right-turn-out entrance along North Atherton Street that was added to the plans in late October.

When the plans were reviewed by the township’s planning commission last month, several residents of the nearby Overlook Heights neighborhood expressed a variety of concerns, such as drivers cutting through the neighborhood and Wawa’s parking lot to avoid traffic on Atherton Street, pedestrian safety issues caused by increased traffic and noise and light issues.

Potential solutions were discussed, including developer PennTerra installing a barrier on West Aaron Drive to keep traffic from cutting through the neighborhood, turning the drive into a one-way to prevent Wawa traffic from turning into the neighborhood and the installation of a wall at the rear of Wawa’s property to mitigate noise and light.

But no solution was decided upon, as adding safety measures to West Aaron Drive would be the responsibility of the township, not the developer. The plans were passed with the condition that the developer and township staff meet one final time to address the residents’ concerns — even though the development plan already fulfilled the necessary township ordinances.

After the final meeting between the developers and township staff, township Stormwater Engineer Adam Wilusz outlined in a memo additional measures suggested by the developer.

The memo reads that PennTerra would install a vegetative wall in the rear of the property for noise and light mitigation, make improvements to the sidewalk across West Aaron Drive from the property, make pedestrian-friendly timer changes to the crosswalks at the intersection of Atherton Street and the drive and contribute to traffic-easing solutions in Overlook Heights.

“[PennTerra’s] proposal is to monetarily contribute to those so that it can be studied after the store’s operation has been normalized, and residents who might be adversely affected by that one-way have been consulted so we can properly have public input, and make that as an educated decision given the potential impact it has in the neighborhood,” Wilusz said Monday.

Some neighborhood residents were dissatisfied with what PennTerra was offering and wanted more immediate solutions, like Megan Orient, who told the supervisors that “sometimes the minimum is not enough.”

Fellow resident Rob Venema agreed.

“To be honest, I am shocked that we are here discussing this matter with the board of supervisors today,” Venema said. “A few years ago we were told by most of you that the developer would have meetings and be open to input — they have heard our input, they have done nothing.”

While the supervisors recognized the concerns, they said Wawa’s development plans technically could not be voted down as they fulfilled all requirements of the township’s ordinances.

As described by Supervisor Patricia Stephens, who’s also a resident of the neighborhood, the project developer could file “costly” litigation against the township if the supervisors were to vote down a development plan with no flaws, especially since the developer is willing to contribute beyond what’s required.

“Our hands are tied,” she said.

After the plans were approved, a separate motion was passed to direct township staff to explore what specifically the township could do in the future to help mitigate resident concerns, keeping PennTerra’s financial commitment and other contributions in mind.

Moving forward, PennTerra must now submit Wawa’s final land development plans to the township’s planning commission and supervisors for approval, although it was not shared when that would be done.