Township moves to adopt wellhead protection measure, limits on size of buildings
By: Jake Uitti
MONTGOMERY In a move that would have an impact on the controversial application by Wawa to build a convenience store and 12-bay gas station on Route 518 near the Rocky Hill border, the township is moving forward to adopt a wellhead protection ordinance.
If approved, the ordinance would prohibit service stations within a wellhead protection area.
To better implement the ordinance, the township plans to work with Rocky Hill to craft an intermunicipal agreement so that each municipality would comply with the other’s wellhead protection ordinance. Rocky Hill has already adopted a wellhead protection ordinance, and Montgomery’s draft ordinance is very similar.
Mayor Louise Wilson said the township would also reach out to other area municipalities, including Princeton, to discuss wellhead protection and possible intermunicipal agreements.
During Thursday’s meeting of the Township Committee, township planner Richard Coppola presented a draft of the wellhead protection ordinance.
"I think it’s a real good draft," Mayor Louise Wilson said. "I’m very pleased that it is very similar to, and is based on, Rocky Hill’s wellhead protection ordinance. It reflects good work and has been approved by (the state Department of Environmental Protection)."
She added that if the draft ordinance is approved, it will give the township the power to allow variances to be granted for service stations within the wellhead protection area.
"Such a variance would be much more favorably considered, I imagine, for an existing service station," the mayor said. "It’s a lot less likely, it seems to me, that a variance would be granted for a new service station. But that is just my opinion, and I do not sit on the Zoning Board."
At the meeting, Rocky Hill Mayor George Morren and Borough Councilman Ed Zimmerman told committee members they would be pleased to work with the township on an intermunicipal wellhead protection agreement.
During the same discussion, Mr. Coppola addressed additional amendments to the township’s service station ordinance.
The proposed amendments call for a maximum size for service station-convenience stores of 3,500 square feet, or 4,000 square feet if accessories such as Dumpster areas are enclosed, among other changes.
The amendments are meant to "modernize" the current service station ordinance and to clarify certain things that were open to interpretation that the Planning Board knew would be litigated, Mayor Wilson said.
"Personally, I was comfortable with what Mr. Coppola incorporated into the service station ordinance," Mayor Wilson said. "It incorporated additional amendments based on feedback and suggestions that had come from the Township Committee this summer."
The existing Wawa convenience store, located on Route 206, is about 3,100 square feet, while the proposed building would be 6,000 square feet.
"I was glad to see a limit placed on the size of the convenience store and glad to see that all the other service stations in town continue to comply with this ordinance," the mayor said. "It doesn’t set a new standard that other service stations can’t meet."
The committee probably will introduce both the service station ordinance and the wellhead protection ordinance either Sept. 21 or during the first October meeting.
"Obviously, both of these ordinances are going to be directly relevant in some way to the Wawa application," the mayor said. "It was the Wawa application that brought these issues to the fore. But it’s also important to remember that both the wellhead and service station ordinances apply to the entire town and were drafted very much to deal with the broader planning issues and not to sink the Wawa application."

