Cherry Hill residents have mixed feelings towards a proposal to build a “Super Wawa” in their neighborhood.
Despite those concerns, the Cherry Hill Planning Board approved the plan early Tuesday morning, according to a resident at the meeting.
The store is set to be built at a site on Haddonfield Road where an old Toyota dealership currently lies. Neighbors who live near the dealership are worried about how the store could affect their everyday lives.
"Whether it's the lights, whether it's the deliveries that they're receiving, it'll never stop," said Michael Fischetti. "That affects you when it's out your living room window."
Those who live near the site of the proposed store want the side street shut down if the Wawa opens. They say they don’t want customers to cut through their street on Oakview Road to avoid traffic on Haddonfield Road which gets backed up because of the Cherry Hill Mall.
Residents also fear that bright lights and late deliveries that come with the 24-hour store will bring excessive noise, traffic, litter and loitering to their streets, decreasing property value and the safety of their children.
A town council meeting took place Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Cherry Hill Municipal Building and lasted until about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday by the time the majority vote was made.
During the meeting, attorneys from Wawa outlined a revised plan for the superstore to address community concerns. They want to make traffic patterns in and out of the store's parking lot safer and say they will not tolerate litter.
They also say they'll work with Cherry Hill Police to place security cameras in and out of the store and the township to create local noise and traffic ordinances. Finally, they say they would increase the height of evergreen trees to create a shield for residents. The Wawa would also create around 20 jobs.
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"I think the township is listening to us," said Fischetti. "We're just hoping that dollars don't override sense."
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