An example of a Super Wawa. This one is on the northbound side of Route 73 in Berlin.
The contested plan for a Super Wawa near Route 73 and Kresson Road in Voorhees, which made it through the Voorhees and Evesham zoning boards, now is before a state Superior Court judge.
Lawyer Howard N. Sobel, whose law offices would abut a planned Wawa driveway on Kresson Road, filed suit on February 28 in Camden County, asking the court to reverse the Voorhees board's decision and block the store and filling station.
In his 54-page filing, Sobel detailed testimony and comments about traffic on Kresson Road. Besides the Kresson Road driveway, the Wawa would have an entrance and exit on Route 73. It would be built on a mostly wooded lot and a home on Kresson Road would be demolished to make way for the driveway.
Kresson Road residents Heather Furey and Thomas Furey are named as plaintiffs with Sobel's office, the Voorhees Law Center LLC at 507 Kresson Road. The Fureys live across Kresson Road from the planned Wawa driveway.
The Voorhees Zoning Board of Adjustment and Wawa developer Voorhees Route 73 Development Group LLC are named as defendants.
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Judge Deborah Silverman Katz, who last month reversed a decision by the Winslow Township Planning Board approving a Super Wawa on the White Horse Pike (Route 30), is listed as the judge for the Voorhees Wawa lawsuit.
In the Winslow case, she agreed with the plaintiffs that the Wawa plans were under the jurisdiction of the zoning board and not the planning board, which had approved them. She sent the plan to the zoning board for a decision.
In the Voorhees case, Sobel alleges several errors and missteps were made by the Voorhees zoning board before it gave the project preliminary and final site-plan approvals and zoning waivers at its December meeting.
Sobel alleges that a notice of a virtual public hearing on the proposal last April misidentified a property and that his request for information from the Township was delayed. He also stated that the "Township website home page announcing the next Voorhees Township Zoning Board meeting as late as May 6, 2021, stated the next Zoning Board meeting is to take place on April 8, 2021."
Full plans for the Super Wawa were not available on the website 10 days in advance of the hearing and "nor were plans legible," the suit states.
The lawsuit states that the Voorhees Law Center planner, Barbara Woolley, went to the zoning office to copy the plans.
"Ms. Woolley was denied copies of the plans, despite agreeing to complete a written OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request while at the Voorhees municipal offices," according to the suit. "Rather, she was advised she would have to complete the OPRA request virtually, despite Voorhees Township's published policies enabling persons to obtain records by completing a standard OPRA written request form."
Sobel also alleges that he was not recognized as a lawyer at the May hearing and had to hold his comments until the public hearing. He stated in the suit that he was not allowed to object to jurisdiction at the beginning of the hearing because Timothy Prime, the lawyer representing the developer, told the board chairman that Sobel was part of the public.
Although on Route 73, the new Wawa would have a driveway west of the bad intersection.
