MARLBORO – Representatives of an applicant that is proposing to construct a Wawa convenience store, gas station and medical office building on Route 520 in Marlboro are expected to continue presenting testimony about the plan before the Zoning Board of Adjustment in 2019.
Marlboro North Main, LLC, is represented by attorney Jason R. Tuvel. Testimony regarding the application was presented by engineer Michael Gallagher during a Dec. 11 zoning board meeting.
The application deals with three lots that combine to form a 12.3-acre parcel east of Route 79 and south of Route 520. The lots are in a C-2 commercial zone. Two lots each contain a home and a detached garage. The third lot contains a church/house of worship (the Church of Saint Gabriel) a rectory/parish hall building and a parking area.
Marlboro North Main is seeking permission to remove the existing site improvements on the lots with the homes and garages, to consolidate the three lots and to construct a two-story medical office building (10,092 square feet) and a Wawa convenience store (5,585 square feet) with gasoline fuel service.
The gas station would have eight fuel pump islands with four attendant kiosks below a canopy structure. The medical office building would have parking for 104 vehicles and Wawa would have parking for 57 vehicles, according to the application.
Wawa is proposed to operate 24 hours a day. The applicant’s representatives said between 40 and 50 employees would be employed at the location, with a maximum of 12 employees working during one shift.
Testimony offered on Dec. 11 focused on how vehicles would enter and exit the site. Access is proposed on Route 520 and on Route 79.
Access to the Wawa and the medical office building is proposed from a full-movement driveway on Route 520 at Meglio Drive that would also serve the church property. Right and left turns in and out would be permitted at that location.
Access is also proposed from Route 79 at a driveway that would permit right and left turns into the Wawa/medical office building site, but only right turns from the property to Route 79. The applicant has been asked by the New Jersey Department of Transportation to provide a left turn lane from Route 79 into the site.
According to the testimony, Meglio Drive is currently part of the church property. The plan before the zoning board proposes allowing Marlboro North Main to acquire Meglio Drive and to grant an access easement to the church so its access may be preserved. There are no proposed adjustments involving the church, its parking areas or its access.
Information from the zoning board states that “while a personal service use, including a medical office, is a permitted use within a C-2 zone district and a motor vehicle station is a permitted conditional use, the mixed use of the property to contain two principal uses is not permitted; thereby requiring (a) use variance.”
Testimony regarding traffic and the proposed medical building is expected to be heard at a future meeting.
The Marlboro North Main application was carried to the zoning board’s Jan. 8 reorganization meeting. No testimony will be presented that evening, but board members will announce the next date on which the Wawa application will be heard.
