Politics & Government
Preliminary Wawa Plan Approved by Media Borough Council
A zoning change and ownership of Baker Street are the next steps needed to move the project forward.
Media Borough Council unanimously approved the preliminary land development plan for the Wawa project at Thursday's council meeting.
The preliminary plan for the project at Baltimore Avenue, State Street and Providence Road, had been recommended for approval by the Media Planning Commission in July. Unless an applicant is in violation of municipality ordinances it is rare that a preliminary land development plan would be denied.
Preliminary plan approval is just one step in the process and does not yet mean a Wawa will be built on the property. A zoning change of a portion of the property still needs approval along with the redesign and ground lease of Baker Street, which cuts through the property, and then final plan approval is needed.
In March, the planning commission voted to recommend that borough council support the rezoning for commercial use and redesign Baker Street. However, the zoning request change, which had been on borough council's agenda in April, was then removed at the applicant's request and has not yet returned.
Traffic Improvement Changes
On Thursday, traffic was discussed prior to the preliminary plan vote.
The borough's traffic engineer Amy Kaminski presented her options for traffic improvements at the congested Baltimore Avenue and Providence Road intersection.
Kaminski said she and the developer's traffic engineer Matt Hammond agreed that the better choice for traffic improvements was to create a dual left turn lane on Providence Road turning onto Baltimore Avenue, rather than the addition of a right turn lane on State Street onto Providence, which is currently in the Wawa plan.
The proposed State Street right turn lane would cost Wawa $150,000 due to the need to move major utility poles and wires.
The dual left turn lanes on Providence Road, which is not currently in the Wawa plan, would cost an estimated $290,000, Kaminski said.
Council agreed the dual left turn lanes were the better choice to improve traffic, rather than the additional right turn lane, however, it was unclear if Wawa would commit to paying $290,000 over the $150,000, which was previously discussed for off-site traffic improvements. This money is an additional developer expense, on top of building on the actual property, for improvements happening off-site.
Debate over how the preliminary land development plan should be worded, regarding these possible traffic changes, was than discussed by council, the developers, traffic engineers and attorneys.
The preliminary plan, as is, does not mention the possibility of dual left turn lanes so a condition needed to be included in the preliminary plan to account for the possibility and cost of those traffic improvements.
Tim Sullivan, the attorney representing the applicant Media Real Estate, said he could not commit Wawa to paying $290,000 when the decision of the ground lease (or Baker Street) has not yet been decided.
The borough owns Baker Street and would have to lease the ground to the applicant in order for the project to move forward. However, the applicant has not yet brought a formal proposal regarding Baker Street to council.
Councilman Paul Robinson said Baker Street is a separate issue, which was not on the table Thursday, and the applicant chose to seek preliminary plan approval prior to ground lease approval.
The preliminary plan was approved with 33 conditions and five waivers. The final condition, which requests the dual left turn lanes over the right turn lane, read as follows:
"The borough reserves the right to require the developer to widen that portion of Providence Road, north of Baltimore Avenue, and install two southbound left turn lanes from Providence onto Baltimore Avenue, at the developer's sole cost and expense. Alternatively, the borough reserves the right to require the developer to make a monetary contribution of at least $290,000 to be used by the borough for off-site traffic improvements."
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