Wawa Renderings
Andrew N.
As I promised this morning, here are two renderings I was able to grab last night that give a solid feel for what they are wanting to do. This first is the artist rendering showing WaWa's design rendering of the 3' knee wall as submitted. It is decorative, adds visual softness to a stark corner and according to the engineer is made to NOT be customer friendly to posterior parts of the human body to prevent loitering.
The issue as mentioned was that the City is directing them to make this into a block fence which would create numbers of loitering issues. I will confirm with all later today after I have heard from Doug Metzger in planning.
Here is a shot of the actual Plat.
A few facts:
- The parcel is 5.2 acres of which WaWa will use one half. The balance of almost 3.0 acres will be mixed use office - no one is committed at this moment.Banking is being pursued.
- The site will take $6.0 million to develop, the average WaWa hires a staff of 50+ and is very customer focused.
- The building itself has glass on three sides to provide visibility onto the parking parcel as well as ability to look in (7Eleven should have been taking notes on that issue).
- There will be outdoor seating for customers to enjoy food purchases
- There will be 8 pumps and 64 parking spaces
- Lighting is hi-tech LED with less than 5 ft candles with no bleed out
- The trip impact is <1,000 below its zoned usage
- Major emphasis on landscaping and first impressions
Note - It is a shame that Commissioner Lynum was not there although RS was. The public outcry regarding the low presence of police, high crime and open drug/prostitution/panhandling was loud, sustained and strong. I was surprise there were no official comments made addressing this. Perhaps it is because this is a shared boundary between the two commish's, I don't know. I was shocked and disappointed that the issue was left undefended by the city.
Does anyone know what the working relationship is between these two county representatives. It is incredibly obvious to the outsider that if they could work in tandem, the outcry would be loud enough to gain attention. Perhaps they are and it simply is not yielding results. Worthy of further discover. What we know is what ever IS being done, is not working and methodologies should be modified.
Here is the plat:
Andrew N.
Good afternoon Doug,
Thanks again for working with us on resolution on the 7Eleven project on Edgewater/Colonial. How is that progressing? Do they have finals yet for the fence and lighting?
Last night we attended a community meeting at Edgewater High School where WaWa presented to the community their plans and renderings for their new building at the corner of OBT and Colonial. 7Eleven could have taken notes on how to present a beautiful project - no back of building here! Such a contrast. We were overall pleased with what we saw.
One item did jump out and is why I am reaching out to you. I have attached a photo of one of the renderings which shows a ranch style knee wall around the parcel. It is attractive and ascetically pleasing - however, it did raise one big issue and that is the issue of loitering by the homeless, pushers, prostitutes, dealers and other riff-raff that wanders the streets aimlessly. Loitering is a major crime issue on this street.
When we challenged the fence we were told that this particular fence submitted was not human friendly and as a result would not attract loiters. They went on to mention however that the city (no names mentioned) was instructing them to replace the wall submitted with a block wall. Is that true?
If so, please re-think this. It will come up strongly in subsequent public meetings I assure you.
A block wall would not only be less appealing visually, it will in fact attract people to use it for sitting, loitering, and other acts not welcome. The negative impact not only to WaWa as a business but to the community at large is beyond calculation.
Your feedback is welcomed. Here is a picture of that rendering in question.
