JD Mullane|Bucks County Courier Times
Like my favorite local hardware store and neighborhood saloon, I have a personal bond with Wawa, the ubiquitous convenience chain whose slogan is “Gotta have a Wawa.”
I’m in Wawa almost daily to get milk or a sandwich, iced tea, a late afternoon candy bar, or to gas up the heap. You, too, maybe. Wawa is part of our retail culture in Southeastern Pennsylvania, where the chain, named for a goose, was launched in 1964 in Delaware County. I like Wawa. A lot.
In lower Bucks County, I can stand in line at any Wawa and name five other Wawa locations within a a mile or more.That’s because Wawa, with more than 850 stores, is everywhere, like Dr. Fauci doing media. But like an overexposed celebrity, I wonder if we’re reaching peak Wawa.
Wawa stores have comeonline all over, from Levittown to Doylestown, Montco to South Jersey. In several places, like Horsham, Lower Southampton and Mount Laurel, locals have called “Stop!” to Wawa’s advance on corner lots and pockets of open space. It’s happening again in Northampton Township, in a neighborhood called Holland Village.
Holland is largely a bedroom community. Sandwiched between Buck, Holland and Rocksville roads, are several beautiful acres of open space that will be cleared and graded for a Super Wawa. The store will be about 5,600 square feet, and have at least 16 gas pumps.
Neighbors nearby have opposed this plan for at least two years.One old timer drove me around for an hour in his car, showing me the store’s footprint. His house, where he has lived since the 1950s, is about 200 feet from what is set to be the store’s parking lot.
Wawa is open 24/7. Large canopies over the gas pump are lit all night. There will be traffic and truck deliveries. As I said, I like Wawa. I just don’t know if I’d like to live 200 or even 2,000 feet from one.
Which is why residents began an online petition to stop the Holland store, which is characterized as “intrusive.” Increased traffic and decreased sense of “community” as well as a loss of the “quaint feel” of the Holland area are the concerns.
I asked members of the Board of Supervisors to weigh in. The board is keeping mum, for now, until the township zoning board discusses the issue (5:30 p.m. April 12in an online meeting), and then the township planning board gets it, and then hands it to the supervisors for a final decision.
As for Wawa, I asked how they choose a site.Spokeswoman Lori Bruce sent a note, explaining it. The proposed Holland store will replace a Wawa down the street that opened in 1968.
“When we look for sites, we start with what we call our Boundless Convenience Strategy,” she said, by which she means putting a store and its amenities, like gas pumps, where the company believes is most convenient.
“Essentially, we try to fill ‘gaps’ in our markets.We look for properties that are zoned for our use where we can better serve our customers. Often, this includes upgrading and/or replacing our older legacy stores with more modern facilities,” she said.
“It is our hope that our process of open discussions in the community, dialogue and transparency will always help us come to the best decision for every community we serve,” she wrote. “In the end we want to develop a store that everyone is proud of and that is a true asset to the community.We feel this new proposed Northampton Township store will do just that.”
Wawa has a genius for picking good spots. The store it recently broke ground for in Tullytown, a short drive from SEPTA's(still) sparkling new Levittown train station, is perfect. Nobody's complained. Wawa did it right.
Northampton is another story. As a kid, I recall when it was mostly farms. In the late 1990s, I spent a few years in Richboro covering the township. When people in Northampton don’t want something, like more houses, upscale residents haul out the big guns, was my impression.
Once, they brought their own highway engineer to challenge the township's official traffic study concluding that a Toll Brothers housing development would notbring more traffic to a small but busy intersection. They won, and Toll adjustedplans to widen roads and add traffic signals.
When this newspaper wanted to put a new printing facility in an industrial park near a newage-restricted residential community, the pushback was fierce. We needed a five-story tower to accommodate astate-of-the-art vertical press. A resident told me no one wanted to look out a window and see a “skyscraper” in Northampton.
Our company’s team said, “Oh, you’ll never see it.” To prove it, we obtained a large helium balloon, tethered it to a rope, and let if drift up five stories, the height of the press. You could see the balloon in every direction, and from far away, too. Oops. Being good neighbors, we decided to find another place for our press, and did, in Falls.
I know Wawa has the zoning in Northampton, or most of it, but does it really need that store at that location? Does it want to tick off the 1,300 people who’ve signed the petition?
When I was covering the township, it always had a budget surplus of $20 million. If any dough is left, maybe buy the property and create a recreation area. It’s a beautiful piece of land. I can see why Wawa wants it, and why neighbors don't want Wawa there.
“Gotta have a Wawa” oh, yeah. But in this case, maybe you gotta put the Wawa somewhere else.
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Columnist JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.
