Traffic report further delays Wawa proposal

By GREG KENNELTY
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN — A Planning Board hearing on a controversial application for a Wawa gas station and convenience store at Route 35 and Wyckoff Road has been postponed due to the introduction of a new traffic study.

The report by Township Engineer David Marks addresses traffic impacts, stormwater management systems, grading, drainage, utilities, landscaping and lighting.

Rick Kniesler, zoning officer and secretary to the planning and zoning boards, said the meeting was carried to Oct. 27 because the report had been submitted just prior to the board’s Aug. 25 meeting.

“Nobody had the chance to review the report,” Kniesler said.

According to the report, a July 2013 traffic study submitted by applicant Fidelity LLC projected that the gas station, convenience store and a freestanding Chick-fil-A restaurant on the site would generate 238 peak-hour trips on weekday mornings, 359 peak-hour trips on weekday afternoons, and 308 peak-hour trips on Saturdays.

Marks’ report is critical of a previous traffic report submitted on behalf of several business owners who are opposing the application, saying that the prior study minimized the traffic that should be anticipated.

The new report cites several studies in the prior report, including one that examined businesses similar to those proposed in Eatontown. One study looked at eight similar locations in Maryland where traffic generated is 497 peak-hour trips on weekday mornings and 431 peak-hour trips on weekday evenings, while another study examined three locations in New Jersey where traffic generated is 634 peak-hour trips on weekday mornings and 431 on weekday evenings.

The report suggests a traffic count be conducted at similar Wawa locations for presentation at the next meeting.

William Potter, attorney for the objectors, called the new report “a surprising turn of events in the process.” Potter represents the owners of Kennedy Auto Service Inc., Excellency Enterprise LLC and Gas of Eatontown Inc.

The business owners sued to stop the project after the Fidelity LLC application was originally approved by the Planning Board in December 2013.

Potter filed the appeal in February in state Superior Court, Freehold, and in May, Superior Court Judge Dennis O’Brien remanded the application back to the board. O’Brien ruled that the opposition had not been given ample opportunity to testify against the application.

The 6.1-acre parcel at the corner of Route 35 and Wyckoff Road is the current site of an automotive franchise and a vacated mobile-home park.

“I think it would be pointless to proceed with … the hearings,” Potter said at last week’s meeting. “I have my professionals here, but it appears the application is in flux again.”