Lynchburg panel approves rezoning for Wawa at Greenview and Leesville over traffic objections

The Lynchburg Planning Commission on Wednesday approved a petition by TPB Enterprises LLC to amend the city’s future land use map and rezone roughly 4.915 acres at 1516 Greenview Drive and 794–798 Leesville Road to allow a Wawa convenience store with a fuel canopy.

The commission voted 5–1 to approve the request after a public hearing in which nearby residents urged the panel to address traffic and pedestrian-safety problems on Morview Drive and Leesville Road. City planning staff recommended approval, noting that half the site already carries B-3-C community-business zoning and that the proposal includes conditions intended to limit impacts on adjacent homes.

City staff said the properties were annexed in 1976 and that previous zoning actions permitted the existing nursery on part of the site. The staff presentation described proffers attached to Area A of the site that prohibit certain uses (for example, short-term loans and cash-for-gold businesses), require a 50-foot setback for parking and buildings closest to the northwest residential boundary, and leave Gary’s Garden Center in place. Staff also reported that the city’s engineering division reviewed the traffic study and concurred with its findings.

Chris Burns, agent for TPB Enterprises and a representative of Westwood Professional Services, told commissioners the development concept includes a roughly 6,000-square-foot building with 12 fueling positions and that the traffic study used industry-standard methods (ITE trip-generation rates and Synchro/SIMTraffic modeling). Burns said sight-distance and other safety requirements will be confirmed during the site-plan review.

"Traffic study has been provided. It supports these improvements that we've got shown," Burns said during his presentation.

Several neighbors pressed the commission on safety. Thomas Sorrells of the Wexford Homeowners Association said he filed a Freedom of Information Act request for crash data and told commissioners, "in 2023, there were 6 accidents; in 2024, there were 8 accidents; and in 2025, there were 13," and argued that moving Access A closer to a small hill creates a blind-turn risk. Robert Martin, a resident near Morview Drive, said, "the traffic there is very heavy" and described times when congestion reaches down to nearby houses.

Petitioners and staff described design elements aimed at reducing conflict points: raised concrete medians that would allow left turns out of the site but prohibit left turns into the site, a primary entrance on Greenview Drive with a right-in/right-out/left-in configuration, a secondary entrance on Leesville Road looping behind the nursery, vegetated perimeter buffers to preserve mature trees, and monument-style signage near the corner.

Commission debate acknowledged neighbors' safety concerns but leaned toward the staff recommendation. Unidentified Commissioner 4 moved to approve the petition and Unidentified Commissioner 2 seconded. After a voice vote, the chair announced the motion carried 5–1.

The commission's action forwards the petition to City Council for its consideration; commissioners and staff said they would also pass resident concerns about Morview Drive and Leesville Road to the city engineering division and noted a separate multimodal planning effort underway through the Central Virginia Planning District Commission.

The meeting adjourned after commissioners discussed possible corridor priorities and a staff-level draft related to a proposed data center policy.