Planning board approves Wawa at 880 Main Street with conditions after detailed engineering, traffic and environmental review

The Sayreville Planning Board on an evening meeting (date not specified) approved High Point Investments of Sayreville LLC’s application to subdivide and develop 880 Main Street and build a 6,732-square-foot Wawa convenience store with 6 fueling islands (12 pumps), bioretention stormwater basins and a mobile-pickup “FlyThru” window, subject to a series of conditions the board added before the final roll call.

The approval followed a multi-hour presentation by the applicant’s engineering and planning team and testimony from a Wawa operations representative. The board’s conditions include showing a potential future cross-access to the adjacent bus-depot lot, reducing freestanding signage (one 20-foot sign at the Main Street drive and a 10-foot monument on Crossman Road as an alternative), adding a pedestrian connection from Main Street to the building (with the likely loss of one parking space), compliance with town engineering and planning reports, provision of one bench and one bike rack, on-site wayfinding to keep the FlyThru lane from blocking circulation, an attempt to schedule fuel deliveries off peak hours, and a ban on outdoor dining/tables unless the board later allows it in a discrete application.

Why it matters: The project sits on a corner parcel adjacent to a First Transit bus compound, over an area with documented groundwater remediation. The site will create a new commercial use in an industrially zoned portion of Sayreville, raising questions about traffic, stormwater controls over a remediated footprint and signage that the board said must balance visibility and safety.

What the board heard and required

Attorney Hugh McGuire introduced the application on behalf of High Point Investments of Sayreville LLC and explained the proposal’s basic scope. Project engineer Mark Shenoda, under oath, described the site as Block 251, Lot 1 on the southwest corner of Main Street and Crossman Road and summarized environmental and stormwater work planned for the property. Shenoda said the applicant will subdivide the parcel into a roughly 3.2-acre corner lot for Wawa and a remainder of about 13.3 acres, and that the convenience store would be 6,732 square feet with associated fueling infrastructure and parking.

Shenoda told the board the site contains wetlands and a flood-hazard area at the rear, and that the applicant had filed DEP-related verifications and will design stormwater controls to comply with NJAC 7:8 and to treat and manage runoff for a projected 2100 storm event (about 11.5 inches in 24 hours). He said the design uses two lined bioretention basins and HDPE liners “to make sure that there's no contact with that groundwater,” noting ongoing groundwater remediation and monitoring by an LSRP.

On contamination and construction controls, Shenoda said an RAO (remedial action outcome) had already been submitted to the board’s professionals and that the property’s soil issues in portions of the larger parcel had been remediated and capped; he said engineering controls and liners will separate stormwater and site improvements from the groundwater remediation program.

Traffic, circulation and operations

Shenoda and the applicant’s team told the board they completed a capacity analysis using proposed county signal timings. They testified that Main Street’s level of service would remain roughly the same under project traffic and that Crossman Road (a short stub serving the bus compound) could see a modest drop in level of service but not to a degree the applicants believed would create a public-safety risk.

Board members and consultants repeatedly questioned circulation for tanker and vendor trucks and the new FlyThru pickup lane. The board asked whether fuel-tanker deliveries could be limited to off-peak times; the applicant agreed to “attempt to keep deliveries to off peak hours” as a condition. The board also required additional turning templates and coordination with…