Gotta Have The Wawa
Before I begin, I just want to state my Delaware Valley bonafides, I love The Wawa. That said, and it is probably much too late on this topic, but Wawa is building a store opposite the Concord Mall. They are building it on the northwest corner of Route 202 and Rocky Run Parkway – it used to be Leon’s Garden World and it is adjacent to the same shopping center as Shop Rite.
Given that Delawareans cannot cross streets properly and bad planning, it really doesn’t seem like a great idea to build a Wawa across the street from the Concord Mall. It’s like they want to create pedestrian traffic. With a speed limit of 50 miles-per-hour on Route 202 and only one crosswalk, I guess Delaware is looking to thin the herd Darwin Award style.
Hopefully, Matt Meyer, the New Castle County government, and Wawa can look into this some more to make this intersection safer for pedestrians.
There’s a Wawa right around the corner on Naamans Road near 202. Of course, it doesn’t have the gas pumps…
Wawa’s business model now requires a gas station. Not just a gas station, but a gas mega-plaza that allows fleets of vehicles to park at the pump while the drivers shop. All to avoid making customers park around the side or the back. From a land use perspective, this is horrible.
On the other hand, the new-style Wawas also feature bathrooms, which has come in handy more than once, and also allows me to tell friends and family “I went pee-pee in the Wawa.”
Plus, it won’t be long for WilmU students at their new campus to come over during breaks. So there will be plenty of opportunities to prove just how bad our planning for pedestrians is.
I’m so old I remember a time when Secretary of Transportation Kermit Justice, before he went to jail for accepting a bribe, signed off on a proposed development at the intersection of Concord Pike and Silverside Road, with a determination that it would have ‘no appreciable impact’ on traffic.
The reason for this finding? I swear I’m not making this up. It was b/c the intersection was already a ‘failed intersection, Level E’, and it would remain a failed intersection with the additional development.
@Liberalgeek Wilm U will be on the same side of the road.
And NCC Council can give a hill of beans what people think, they except a CVS & Walgreens right across the street from each other. Look at what they did to the people in the Pike Creek area! Whiteman’s garage to become a CVS, right across the street from a park. Where parent’s can send their kids, playing soccer who forgot their water.
WHAT?????? Whiteman’s garage will be a CVS? Arhhhhggggg!!!!!!!
Look at what they did to the people in the Pike Creek area! Whiteman’s garage to become a CVS, right across the street from a park.
I love how Corner Ketch has become part of “the Pike Creek Area.” That’s like calling Elsmere part of “the Greenville Area.” It’s not technically wrong, but it’s totally *wrong* to anyone who knows anything about the areas in question.
@Turk: You wanted a Walgreen’s?
Wait, is that what that’s going to be? They JUST FINISHED building a Wawa right down the street, near the Silverside Road intersection.
Wawa gas stations are pretty expensive to be building them out like Starbucks.
@El Som: I imagine they’ll close that strip mall store like they did the Carpenter Station Road store when they opened the Northtowne Plaza gas station. (The Ridge Road store is still open though… hmm.)
I was riding across Sussex County the other day thinking why would planners allow a rural undeveloped area to develop into some low class looking suburb outside the rough part of a big ugly city. It could be so beautiful here but no a man’s land is a man’s land and making money is all that matters.
I’ll have to agree with mouse on this one. The developers and the the county council, and the planning and zoning commission for that matter , are out of control, and DelDOT is not helping either.
DelDOT blames the lack of proper infrastructure to handle the extra volume on the Sussex County Council. The Sussex County Council blames DelDOT , and in the end, no-one gets the blame.
Why would anybody stop the out of control growth if no one can personally be held accountable especially when the transfer fees keep rolling in?
Someone needs to walk into a Sussex County Council meeting, and demand that each member sign a piece of paper that states that they understand and accept responsibility for future problems resulting from their actions.
If you can’t name names, then nothing will change….It’s just human nature.
Someone needs to put up a billboard or sign, with the names of all the council members and their phone numbers. Then people sitting in traffic jams can vent their frustrations. Same goes for the top brass of DelDot.