October 11, 2023

Concord Township Council held conditional use hearings for Terrain Café and Wegmans Tuesday night and decisions are expected in November.

First up was Terrain. The garden shop at Route 1 and Evergreen Drive has an indoor dining area but went to the council for a hearing to get permission for an outdoor dining area that would seat about 82 people. But much of the discussion concerned a new driveway and point of ingress and egress.

The current access point is along Evergreen toward the northern end of the shop. However, that point is right in, right out. The proposed new access point would be a little farther south on Evergreen and would allow for left turns.

A point of concern, brought up by Council Co-vice President John Gillespie, is that the proposed new ingress/egress point does not line up directly with the driveway into the town center on the other side of Evergreen Drive. Traffic engineer Greg Richardson said they would look at that again to see if the two access points can be lined up better.

Immediately after that hearing came a hearing for Wegmans. The supermarket wants to extend the hours of take-out beer and wine sales.

There were no witnesses in the matter, only the legal argument from attorney Ellen Freeman, who is representing Wegmans. She told council members that the Concord store is losing about 100 sales per month compared to the company’s other 17 stores in Pennsylvania that have slightly longer beer and wine sales hours.

She said the Concord Wegman operates beer- and wine-to-go sales from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. However, now the company wants to amend what was previously approved in 2015 and extend those hours.

Those requested hours are 9 a.m. to midnight on Sundays, and 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday. She said those are the hours allowed by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, and closer to the hours the store is open for business. Wegmans opens at 6 a.m.

Freeman added that Wegmans would likely be happy with maintaining an 11 p.m. cutoff time for alcohol sales.

No decisions were made during Tuesday’s hearing. Council President Dominic Pileggi said they would be announced at the November meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 8. The meeting is Wednesday because Tuesday, Nov. 7 is election day, and the meeting room is used for voting.