Wawa traffic expert says effect would be minimal Residents concerned about effects on library and school on Division St. BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer SCOTT PILLING staff A look at the former restaurant where the proposed Wawa convenience store and filling station would go on Route 27. EDISON - Traffic on Route 27 was the biggest concern voiced by residents and Zoning Board members June 19 when the board resumed hearings on a pending Wawa application. The convenience store giant has proposed building a modern Wawa Food Market and filling station on the corner of Route 27 and Division Street in the lot currently occupied by a vacant restaurant. Residents at the Zoning Board meeting expressed concern that the added congestion and safety issues that would come with Wawa's application would make the already troublesome area even worse. Carl Sammarco, of nearby Clark Street, said that conditions at Route 27 and Division Street are getting worse, and that there are almost daily accidents in the vicinity of that intersection. He also said that children cross that intersection to get to school, and increased traffic equals increased risk to the students. Ken Fears, a traffic expert with Oracle Engineering of Piscataway, hired by Wawa, testified that he conducted a comprehensive study of the shopping center and found that the projected traffic increase would be 40 to 50 additional cars on the roadway per hour. Fears said the numbers were intentionally inflated to provide the worst-case scenario and assumed in his study that all patrons of the Wawa would be on the road specifically to use the Wawa, which he said was almost never true. Fears said that in reality, only about 25 percent of those using the Wawa would be new trips, and that the vast majority would be "pass-by traffic" or people on the road for another purpose but choosing to shop at Wawa as well. With pass-by traffic, drivers are "already on the road for another purpose," and the Wawa serves only as "an interruption" of the driving they are already doing. He said the impact to the traffic light at nearby Plainfield Avenue would be one car per signal cycle, or 40 cars per hour. Fears conceded that right-hand turns out of the Wawa parking lot would slow down southbound traffic in the far right lane, but said that the likelihood of northbound drivers making left turns into the parking lot during heavy volume is slim. He expects drivers to pass by the Wawa because it would be too hard to make a left turn into the parking lot. Division Street is a one-way road that connects with Plainfield Avenue east of the Route 27 traffic light and houses an elementary school, public library and community center. Residents have been concerned that added volume on Division Street would be detrimental to the safety of students and users of the public facilities and would provide even more congestion on Plainfield Avenue, which even Fears admitted is at capacity and often requires more than one cycle of the traffic light to get through. Fears said that the study indicates one additional car added to Division Street every two minutes, or 30 vehicles per hour. He said the volume from the Bob's Store formerly located in the shopping center created more traffic than they expect the Wawa to generate. Ira Weinart, a lawyer representing resident Stelios Stoupas in a challenge of the Wawa's application, said that while the food market and the filling station are legitimate uses for the site, the Zoning Board has the right to look at the negative impact the application can have on the site and rule against them even if the application is allowed by law. The shopping center is a GBH zone, or general business zone, which includes retail uses. The filling station falls under the GBH zone's conditional uses and Wawa contends the application fulfills all the conditions. The applicants are asking for zoning variances that include keeping the status quo of the floor area ratio at 2 percent above new requirements, allowing for impervious coverage 8 percent above the maximum allowed of 80 percent (the current amount on the property is 91 percent), and a reduction in the parking requirement from 1,100 spaces to 816 for the total shopping center. The next hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 18.