Marathon Gas at Sumney-Forge Shopping Center Sues Wawa Over Parking Spaces for Vehicles Under Repair
The planned demolition
and redevelopment of the mostly-vacant Wawa shopping center at Sumney-Forge
Shopping Center at Valley Forge Road and Sumneytown Pike in Upper Gwynedd
Township has hit another roadblock.
North Penn Auto Garage, which operates its business and the
Marathon gas station at the corner, has filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County
Court of Common Pleas against Wawa property owner Provco Pinegood Lansdale LLC for
not allowing them to park cars under repair in the parking lot anymore after a
40-plus-year agreement, according
to The Reporter.
At the Upper Gwynedd Board of Commissioners meeting Monday
night, planning and zoning officer Van Rieker told the board he issued a cease-and-desist
order to the gas station and repair shop at the request of the current Wawa
owner, according to the article.
Rieker said North Penn Auto Garage has been previously parking
vehicles with approval of the current and former property owners.
“The current owner has asked them to not park there anymore,
and they terminated any agreement that might have existed. The corner property
has appealed that determination in common pleas court,” he said, according to
the article.
North Penn Auto/Marathon claims there is a prescriptive
easement on certain parking spaces, per the article. Rieker said it comes down
to adverse possession.
“You don’t own the property, but you get to use the
property, in a way they claim they’ve used it for 40 years,” he said in the
article.
According to the report, North Penn Auto claims the cease
and desist is not enforceable until the case is resolved, which will be
discussed at the March 28 zoning hearing meeting. Thus, Rieker recommended
commissioners send himself and their solicitor to that meeting.
“It’s the first one somebody’s appealed in 10 years,” he
said in the report.
At present, Wawa developer Provco Pinegood Sumneytown LLC is
seeking a special exception from the zoning hearing board to allow gasoline
sales and variances from exterior signage.
There will now be a fourth zoning hearing on the matter on
April 4, Rieker said.
Back in October, when Provco had submitted a sketch plan to
the township, Rieker told township commissioners the approval process should
take six to 10 months, beginning with approval from the zoning hearing board to
allow gas pumps on the site.
Provco Pinegood Lansdale LLC and Wawa have been involved in
two court cases with the township, which have now been settled, per the
article.
The property in question, according
to The Reporter, was part of a court case in 2012 and 2013 when the
township zoning hearing board approved, and then commissioners later appealed
in 2012, a plan to add 10 gas pumps and expand the Wawa.
The second court case involved the plan in 2016 to combine
the former parcels of The Sumney and Country Bride and Gent into one huge lot
for a Wawa and gas station at Sumneytown Pike and West Point Pike, per reports.
Read
more on the current lawsuit here.
Read
more on the sketch plan and the former court cases in detail here.
See also:
Special
Meeting for Wawa Expansion in Upper Gwynedd Scheduled for March 1
Preliminary
Plan Submitted to Tear Down Sumney-Forge Shopping Center, Build ‘Super Wawa’
WATCH:
Sumney Tavern in Upper Gwynedd Torn Down Thursday Afternoon
Upper
Gwynedd Pursuing $1.15 Million Grant to Help Acquire Martin Tract
Sandwich
Shop, Nail Salon Among New Businesses Coming to The Shoppes at Upper Gwynedd
