VOORHEES, N.J. -- Residents in one of Voorhies, N.J., thought they avoided getting an expanded Wawa convenience store when the planning board unanimously denied the company's application this summer, according to a report in the South Jersey Courier-Post.
"We were hoping they would go away, but obviously that's not happening," Pastor Charles Clark Jr. of Solid Rock Baptist Church told the newspaper.
Instead, Wawa Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Voorhees and the planning board in state Superior Court in Camden. [image-nocss] The company argues the defendants conspired to reject its plan to replace an older, smaller convenience store with a new food market and gas station, colloquially known as a "Super Wawa." Five houses would be demolished to make room for the project.
The township has denied all of Wawa's assertions in its response to the lawsuit, according to the report.
The company asserts the township changed its land-use ordinance while the application was pending to make it harder to gain approval. In the suit, filed Nov. 16, the company also accused the planning board's traffic expert of crafting a report that included unaccepted traffic engineering principles and opposed a review done by the board's professional engineer.
The expert, Hal Simoff, criticized Wawa's application as deficient because it understated how much new traffic the expanded business would create, didn't consider the traffic congestion on adjoining roads during certain times of the day, and proposed a design unsafe for pedestrians and inefficient for delivery vehicles, among other things.
Wawa, Pa.-based Wawa wants the court to strike Simoff's report from the record and overturn the planning board's decision. It's also seeking the costs of the lawsuit and legal fees.
Stuart Platt, solicitor for the planning board, said Voorhees was in the process of updating its master plan before Wawa submitted its proposal. The land use changes affected zones across the township, not just the business zone in which Wawa is located. Furthermore, the township stands behind Simoff's observations, said Platt, who called the company's lawsuit "frivolous."
He listed Wawa's "poor track record" at the location as being another reason for rejection. The board felt the company's assurances of safety features weren't credible, he said, because it routinely accepted deliveries at 1:30 a.m. even though such activity is permitted only from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and moved handicapped-parking spaces to illegal positions without informing the township.
Steven Eisner, an attorney for Wawa, wouldn't comment on the litigation, according to the newspaper.
"I wouldn't mind if they built a bigger store and had it face White Horse Road, but I don't want the gas," said Joyce Davidson, whose home would face the expanded Wawa. "I don't want it for safety reasons, traffic, noise and all the rest of it."
She and other neighbors contend records show there were 44 reportable crashes at White Horse and Burnt Mill roads in 2004, making the intersection one of the most dangerous in Voorhees. They also say there are 23 gas stations and 13 convenience stores, many of them Wawas, within 3.5 miles of the location.
The residents also criticize Wawa for conducting its traffic counts during the week of July 4, when school was out and people were out of the area on vacation.
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