Florence City Council discussed plans at its Sept. 23 meeting for a new Wawa food market and gas station.
The proposed development, which is expected to be completed in 2027, is situated at the intersection of U.S. Highway 42 and Hopeful Church Road.
Florence Director of Community Development Todd Morgan briefed council members on the proposal, which includes a change in the concept development plan first approved for the site in 1989.
That plan allowed for a convenience store, gas pumps, a self-service carwash and a retail/office building. Wawa, a Pennsylvania-based company that is expanding into the Midwest, proposes to build a food market with a drive-through and gas pumps.
Much of Morgan’s briefing focused on changes to the busy Hopeful Church Road intersection and impacts to neighboring businesses and homes. He also discussed design changes to earlier plans. These included adding more brick to exterior facades, changes to proposed signage and changing lights to prevent spillover into adjacent properties.
The Boone County Planning Commission voted unanimously Aug. 6 to recommend approval of the change in concept development plan. The Boone County recommendation included seven conditions. These included the number of parking spaces, recommended building materials and colors, trees, curb cuts, signage and lighting.
The Florence Planning and Zoning Committee discussed the proposal in two meetings and approved the changes presented to the council at a Sept. 22 meeting.
The city is recommending approval of the revised proposal, with nine conditions. “It would revise the Planning Commission’s conditions in their entirety,” Morgan told council members.
Conditions recommended by Florence include changes to the Wawa building elevations, parking spaces, sign placement, drive-through restrictions limiting Wawa to pick-ups only for orders placed online, time limits on fuel pump speakers, privacy fencing and landscaping buffers.
The recommendations also require the property owner to continue consultation with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and to provide documentation to the City of Florence and Boone County.
Florence officials had to sift through approximately 300 pages of traffic study data. To help make sense of all the numbers, engineer Randy Nguyen with the consulting company CESO, Inc., showed a series of PowerPoint slides illustrating minimal impacts to the intersection and nearby roads.
Several businesses now occupy the site Wawa wants to redevelop. They include a Blue Pantry convenience store with eight gas pumps, a Snappy Tomato Pizza and Lita’s Tacos.
“I would say we’re replacing a business with a like business,” Wawa real estate project engineer Patrick Warnement told council members. “This is not foreign to the area. We are taking out a … convenience store that looks old and we’re replacing it with a top-of-market, best-in-class convenience store with really good food.”
Council member Lesley Chambers noted that she had received questions from residents about what would happen to the existing business owners who might be displaced by the new development.
“We have people who appreciate local family-owned businesses, and that’s what we have. We have some very special places right there and very special owners of businesses that will no longer be there,” Chambers said.
“I was wondering if you could tell me why you would be a good addition to our community,” Chambers asked Warnement.
“Our company’s based in suburban Philadelphia and was actually started by the Wood family as an iron foundry in New Jersey near the 1800s,” Warnement replied. He described how Wawa grew as a family business that once counted Abraham Lincoln as an employee.
“Around 1900, it was basically a dairy business that did milk home deliveries,” Warnement said.
In the 1960s, Wawa began opening food markets and the company expanded its offerings to fuel in the 1990s.
Warnement said the Florence Wawa would employ about 40 people.
“We’ve got about 1,100 stores today, maybe a little over 1,100. The Midwest is a big growth area for us, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana right now,” he said. Warnement added that it has an employee stock ownership program and that the company’s foundation provides money to local organizations, giving approximately $160 million in communities where Wawa is located.
After the council wrapped up its discussion, Florence resident Nancy Corman spoke. “I love Wawa myself. We’ve been to a ton of them so we really like them,” she said. “What happens to Lido’s and Snappy? Where do they go?”
The council will vote in October on an ordinance for the new Wawa project.