Middletown council hears Wawa plan for Route 122 site; planning commission had recommended denial

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — City staff and neighbors weighed the merits and limits of a proposed Wawa convenience store and fuel station during a public hearing Tuesday on a 1.767-acre parcel along State Route 122 that currently holds a vacant CVS building.

City planner Claire Fetters told council the applicant seeks a plan-development district (PD) and multiple waivers to allow retail fuel sales, a smaller PD site than the code’s 5-acre minimum, reduced stacking for the pickup/drive-through lane and other exceptions. The site currently holds a roughly 13,145-square-foot former CVS building; the proposed building footprint for Wawa was described as about 6,300 square feet.

The proposal calls for 24-hour operation, six double-sided fuel dispensers under a canopy, a pickup window for phone/app orders (no menu board or ordering speaker), about 48 parking spaces (including future EV charging for eight spaces) and roughly 40 employees. Fetters said the Planning Commission voted 5–1 to recommend denial and flagged missing materials including a landscaping plan; the city management office recommended denial; community economic development staff said the area might be oversaturated with fuel retailers; public works asked for a traffic study.

Jonathan Woker, the applicant’s planner, told council the owner (Trotman Doms) and Wawa view the site as suitable despite its size limits. Woker said the developer would demolish the existing CVS, that the site’s three frontages and medians on Route 122 make access right-in/right-out, and that the PD process allows council to approve deviations where a plan furtheres the master plan. He described the proposal as a roughly $7 million project and said Wawa’s model emphasizes made-to-order food, community involvement and benefits such as ESOP participation for employees.

Patrick Wornament, a Wawa representative, described the company’s national track record on jobs, charitable giving and employee tenure, and said the company plans to site company-owned stores with regular maintenance and quality control rather than franchised operations.

At the public hearing, the Planning Commission’s vice chair, A.J. (Alton) Dean Mentel Jr., who had served on the commission that reviewed the application, explained the commission’s denial. Mentel emphasized that the PD minimum site area is intended for larger developments and that repeatedly seeking waivers to fit a single building onto a substandard lot undermines the PD process.

Councilmember Tony Horn said he and other members wanted Wawa to locate in Middletown but questioned whether this parcel — a small lot built for a 13,000-square-foot CVS — was the best location for the company. Horn and other council members pressed on site constraints, building massing and the longstanding code standards the PD process was designed to respect.

No final council vote occurred Tuesday. The public hearing record included four written public comments forwarded to council; Fetters said the applicant had indicated it would submit a traffic impact study if rezoning were approved. Council did not adopt or deny the PD at the meeting.

Why it matters: The site sits inside the East End Renaissance development area on the city’s future land use map, a location where the city envisions mixed-use and commercial activity. Approval would change both zoning and the parcel’s permitted uses and could shape follow-on infrastructure and traffic decisions for the growing corridor.

What’s next: The application remains in the public record. Council members asked questions but took no final action; if the applicant requests council consider a rezoning or development plan again, staff will place it on a future agenda with any supplemental materials (traffic study, landscaping plan, updated site plans) that council requests.