Here's Where Newtown Wawa Proposal Now Stands

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — A new Wawa is still possible in Newtown, but for the time being, additional gas station-convenience store applications can not be submitted to the township.

That's due to an amendment approved by the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors earlier this month. The municipal curative amendment will ensure no further applications for gas station-convenience stores come through until the zoning ordinance can be updated to include a use for such a business.

Currently, the jointure that governs Newtown Township's zoning doesn't have a gas station-convenience store use, which has caused a challenge to the current application filed by Wawa for its proposal off the Newtown Bypass.

During a supervisors meeting on Dec. 11, Newtown Township solicitor David Sander explained that state law mandates municipalities must have zoning for the combined use in its ordinance. The jointure, which includes Wrightstown and Upper Makefield as well as Newtown Township, does not currently have such a use.

Participating municipalities are working to amend the ordinance to include the use, Sander explained. The process will protect the township, Sander said, noting permitted locations can be established across the jointure — not only in Newtown Township.

Provco, the applicant seeking to develop a Wawa off the Newtown Bypass at Lower Silver Lake Road, has filed a challenge to the validity of the zoning ordinance because there is currently nowhere the combined use is explicitly permitted.

The approved amendment will not affect the Wawa application, unless Provco withdraws it and submits a new one subject to the new zoning, Sander said.

The proposed Wawa would have fuel pumps and a 5,585 square-foot convenience store.