Cars and convenience stores at PC

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on July 14, 2022

The Piazza Auto Group wants to bring two car dealerships into Chadds Ford Township, and a convenience store wants to move in, too. Those two ideas, in the form of sketch plans, came before the township Planning Commission during its July 13 meeting.

As they were sketch plans, no formal action was taken, and the applicants will return for either further input or to submit engineered plans for formal land development consideration.

This was the second time the convenience store sketch plan came before the commission and, technically, the store can’t be named even though the commission’s agenda said it’s for a Wawa. In May, developer Peter Miller said nothing has been finalized so it shouldn’t be referred to by any name.

The “convenience store with gas pumps” wants to move into the Bill Bunch Auction House site on Hillman Drive — in the Chadds Ford Business Campus — at Route 202. In addition to a 5,585 square foot convenience store, plus a refueling island, a 3,480 square foot bank is also on the sketch plan.

The focus of the discussion on July 13 was traffic. The plan calls for right in/right out access on Route 202, but also ingress and egress on Hillman. Part of the plan also calls for widening Hillman Drive as it approaches 202.

Traffic engineer Nicole Kline reminded commission members that the widening involves creating two new lanes along that stretch, with one lane inbound from Route 202, and four lanes outbound. Of those four, two would be dedicated left turn lanes, one dedicated for straight-through traffic, and the fourth lane for only right turns onto 202 south.

In addition, she said, there would be new entrances farther west on Hillman, for the site itself and for the Goddard School, across Hillman from Bunch’s location.

In May, township engineer Mike Schneider said the plan for widening Hillman is superior to the one originally proposed by The Henderson Group — the owner of the business campus — for the completion of the loop road.

Miller said Wednesday night that Henderson is behind the new plan, as is the owner of The Goddard School. However, there are still concerns over traffic flow and volume.

Kline said her calculations indicate a total of 2,800 extra vehicles during an average workday, with 250 in and out per hour during the four peak weekday hours, 7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the weekend.

Commission members questioned whether vehicles would exit directly onto Route 202 or whether they would exit onto Hillman, then turn left toward 202 and then turn right to head south. There were also questions about whether trucks would be allowed to turn right onto Hillman after exiting the store/bank site.

Again, nothing was finalized, and the applicant would have to return.

Piazza Auto Group

Attorney Harry Christakis, representing Piazza, presented a sketch plan for two car dealerships at 1540 Wilmington Pike (Route 202) north of Garnet Ford. It also has addresses of 1546 and 1550 Wilmington Pike.

One dealership would be for Hyundai, and the other for Genesis, Hyundai’s luxury line. Any approval for that would also require a zoning change for the site. It’s currently zoned B-Business, which doesn’t allow for car dealerships, so the site would need to be rezoned to B-1.

Christakis said there are currently three buildings on the site and three would remain, one for each of the dealerships’ showrooms and the third for the Genesis service area. The Hyundai shop would be in the showroom building. Noting that it’s currently only a sketch plan, Christakis said they wanted input from the commission and would return next month with a revised and more comprehensive plan.

The discussion focused primarily on the size of the parcels. Commission Chairman Craig Huffman said he was concerned about the lack of enough space to handle inventory and customer parking, as well as lighting because the site abuts residential properties.

Timotha Trigg also suggested that size matters.

“You don’t have enough space to do what you want,” Trigg said.

She also suggested it might be better to have both dealerships in one building. That way there would be more room for parking and for car carriers to unload on the property.

Attorney Skip Brion was also on hand for the applicant.

“We came here for your input. We know the plan needs to be revised. Give us the opportunity to put this together.”

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.