By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
There is no dispute that a proposed redevelopment of a 16-acre parcel on the corner of Bakers Basin Road and Route 1 will create more traffic but there is disagreement about the methodologies used to calculate the traffic impact.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment listened at its Feb. 20 meeting as the respective traffic engineers for the applicant, 2012 Lawrenceville Associates LLC, and objector BSA Oil Corp., discussed the traffic count the number of cars expected to enter and exit the new businesses and how they arrived at those figures.
Lawrenceville Associates is seeking a conditional use variance to permit a combined convenience store and gasoline station on the site, which is in the Highway Commercial zone. Wawa wants to build a store with 16 fuel pumps, but the zoning does not permit it.
Additional variances are needed because the township’s Land Use Ordinance permits a maximum of three buildings on a parcel in the Highway Commercial zone. Five buildings are proposed Wawa, a McDonald’s, a TD Bank and two retail buildings. One of the two retail buildings would house the Mrs. G TV & Appliance store.
At last week’s public hearing, traffic engineer Alexander Litwornia, who represents the owners of the Shell gasoline station on Route 1 South opposite the proposed development, presented revised traffic counts at similar Wawa convenience stores that also have gasoline pumps in Medford and Florence. He also presented the results of a study of a Wawa store in Lumberton.
The number of cars entering and exiting the Wawa stores in Medford and Florence during the morning rush hour has increased since the first study was conducted in 1999, but the number of cars entering and exiting during the afternoon rush hour remained about the same based on updated traffic studies conducted earlier this month.
Mr. Litwornia said the Lumberton Wawa store is located in front of a shopping center whose tenants include a Lowe’s home improvement store and a food market. The objector has claimed that the proposed redevelopment in Lawrence would qualify as a shopping center, because there would be more than three buildings on the property.
The applicant estimated the number of cars entering and leaving the proposed Wawa would be around 222 during the morning rush hour, using the Institute for Traffic Engineers handbook, Mr. Litwornia said. But the traffic count at the Lumberton Wawa showed nearly 500 cars during the morning rush hour.
That is a “significant difference,” Mr. Litwornia said. He suggested the applicant’s traffic engineer had underestimated the traffic impact, and the result is that traffic would be “backed up.” There would be traffic congestion, he said.
Traffic engineer James Kochenour, who is the zoning board’s traffic consultant, said traffic engineering is “not an exact science.” The Institute for Traffic Engineers handbook, which is used nationwide by traffic engineers, is updated to reflect new land uses, he said.
Mr. Kochenour discussed various methods that could be used to predict the traffic impact. The Wawa could be evaluated as a “stand-alone” use or as part of a shopping center to determine the traffic impact. Shopping centers do not generate much traffic during the morning rush hour, he said.
Zoning Board of Adjustment Chairman Peter Kremer pointed out and Mr. Kochenour agreed that since Route 1 is a state highway, the New Jersey Department of Transportation has jurisdiction over the road.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment will continue the public hearing on the application at its March 20 meeting.

