Wawa Traffic, Preliminary Budget, North Olive Stormwater on the Agenda tonight

Special Meeting tonight at 6

As a quick heads up to residents, tonight we’ll be discussing the “Wawa” Subdivision and Land Development (SALDO*) application, specifically with regard to the traffic issues.

There’s a special meeting at 6PM with the applicant (Media Real Estate) and our engineers from Gilmore and Associates. The hope is to vote on their SALDO application this month. We’ll be discussing any conditions on the approval this evening as well.

I’ll note that the applicant for this project is Media Real Estate, not Wawa. While Jeffery Cadorette, representative from Media Real Estate, noted in our special October meeting that Media Real Estate was contractually obliged to Wawa to develop this land, we’re not privy to that agreement, and it’s unrelated to their application. From a legal perspective, if we approve this project Media Real Estate is not obliged to place a Wawa there. I think the chances that they will put another store there is slim, but it’s still a possibility.

As a reminder for residents: The Media Real Estate application for the convenience store at the corner of Baltimore Ave and Providence Road has to go through three approvals before it’s considered “approved”:

• Subdivision and Land Development (SALDO) – Should be this month if all goes well this evening
• Zoning Approval/Variances – via the Zoning Hearing Board – after SALDO is approved
• Acquiring Title to the Land – Media Real Estate wishes to build on Baker Street – which is owned by Media Borough. They need to acquire title to this land in order to proceed. This would have to be approved last, and is the full discretion of council. At this point, I’m unsure what the sense of this council is, but come January we’ll have a new group of council members.

So: Remember – this is just phase 1 of 3 phases before this project may become a reality. At any phase it can be denied and will stop the project. 

Technically, though, unless they are not in compliance with local zoning laws, the first two phases will likely be approved. The third phase depends entirely on the sentiment of council.

Workshop

In our regular workshop meeting, we’ll be discussing the preliminary budget for Media Borough for 2014, and further issues with the North Olive street stormwater repairs, and the Olive Street garage.

View the agenda here.

We’d love to see you at our meetings! Comments encouraged, or contact me directly.