Applicants Highdale LLC and developer Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate want to knock down the two-story brick apartment building adjacent to the vacant restaurant, and turn the combined site into a WaWa store.
Moraine City Manager Michael Davis said the rezoning request for the site next goes to Moraine City Council for consideration based on the Planning Commission’s recommendation.
City Council Member Jeanette Marcus, representing Moraine’s Fourth Ward, voiced strong opposition to the project during public comments, warning that it would mean “the partial destruction” of the ward.
“This is my 18th year on city council, and I can truthfully say in my time at city council, I have never seen a worse plan brought before Council or the planning commission,” she told the commission. “This is not a benefit to the city.”
Marcus said that the area’s intersections and roads are not suited for increased traffic and cautioned that placing gas pumps near a busy road could lead to dangerous crashes.
“It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen,” she said. “Look at the part of it close to South Dixie. My understanding (is) those are gas pumps. What do you think is going to happen when someone comes flying down Dixie and can’t stop?”
Marcus said the project would lead to increased noise and fumes and adversely affect the way of life for people living in duplexes on Lehigh Place, many of whom gather on their porches to relax, chat and grill out.
“Who wants to walk out their front door and see this mess?” she said.
She said she is not against WaWa coming to the city, just not at that site.
“Within a ... 5- (or) 10-minute walk of this, is a better property for a Wawa, owned and for sale by the city of Moraine, and it has access on Kettering Boulevard, on South Dixie Drive,” Marcus said. “It’s bigger than this one.”
Marcus also questioned whether adding a gas station to the city is necessary.
“We have four gas station-convenience stores within a 10-minute walk of that property,” she said. “We don’t need a fifth.”
There is a Shell station immediately across Ohio 741 from the proposed Wawa site.
Wawa is a convenience store/gas station that offers, among other things, fresh food, beverages, snack foods and fuel. The chain has more than 1,100 locations. It opened its first Ohio store last month in Butler County’s Liberty Twp.
Among the next eight to 10 communities to see new locations are Huber Heights and Miami Twp. in Montgomery County, Fairfield in Butler County and Deerfield Twp. in Warren County.
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