Marathon Gas at Sumney-Forge Shopping Center Sues Wawa Over Parking Spaces for Vehicles Under Repair

Tony Di Domizio | North Penn Now•

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.