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Wawa coming to Orlando (and Tampa)

Jernigan

By Jernigan
in Orlando

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  • 4 weeks later...

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HankStrong Town

HankStrong

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I went in the WaWa at Goldenrod & Curry Ford and the girl there mentioned that she'll be moving to the one at Dean & Curry Ford as soon as it's built, but I still don't see any movement there or even signage.  I drive past there every day on my way to and from work. 

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Jernigan Town

Jernigan

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Gotta give it to them - I thought it was weird the mayors and Governor were attending the first opening but they have created a ton of jobs. Each one has many more people working than a normal gas station. And while the customer service has dipped from how great it is the first few weeks at all of the central Orlando locations, the I Drive one continues to be peppy over the loudspeaker and that is a good thing for our tourists.

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HankStrong Town

HankStrong

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I went to the one at Colonial & Woodbury (Near UCF) this weekend and didn't notice a service decline at all.

 

 

I'm torn.  I'm no WaWa devotee, but I like the stores and find myself using them when I'm near one.  I also like that RaceTrac seems to build their big, new stores right next to them.  I like good, strong competition and these two love to duke it out while I just reap the benefits.

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  • 3 months later...
HankStrong Town

HankStrong

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The location near Dean/Young Pine on Curry Ford seems to be back on.  Although, it is definitely now on the lot between McDonald's and the intersection.  There was discussion on this going closer to the 417, but they seem to have settled on the East end closer to the new RaceTrac station.

It's useless to post a valid link, because the links change every single time a new ad is recorded, but FloridaLegals.net posted this re-print from the OS legal ads section:  (bold mine)


1. 8/19/2015 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF ZONING ADJUSTMENT NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE is hereby given that the Orange County Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) shall consider the requests listed below at their September 3, 2015 public hearing. Public hearings will be held in the County Commissioner's Chambers located on the first floor of the Orange County Administration Building, 201 Rosalind Avenue beginning at 9:00 a.m. or as soon thereafter as possible. Please be advised that Section 286.0105, Florida Statutes, states that "if a person decides to appeal any decision made by a board, agency, or commission with respect to any matter considered at a meeting or hearing he will need a record of the proceedings, and that for such purpose, he may need to ensure a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based." For any information concerning these requests, please contact Debra Phelps, Recording Secretary, at (407) 836-5917. Para mas informacion referente a esta vista publica, favor de comunicarse con el Departamento de Zonificacion al numero (407) 836-3111. Agenda requests will read as follows: WAWA, INC. - VA-15-08-062 REQUEST: Variances in the PD and A-2 zoning district to construct ground signs as follows: 1) To construct 48 sq. ft. ground sign off-site on property zoned A-2 in lieu of an on-site; and 2) To construct 2 ground signs in lieu of 1 ground sign, one on property zoned P-D and one on property zoned A-2 as noted above. (Note: On May 5, 2015 the Board of County Commissioners and the owner entered an agreement for ingress egress across a portion of an Orange County owned retention pond and for signage along Young Pine Rd. According to Page 17 of the Access Easement Agreement, the applicant may apply for a sign variance to allow off-site ground sign to be approved by a public hearing) ADDRESS: 10052 Curry Ford Rd., Orlando FL 32825 LOCATION: Southwest corner of Curry Ford Rd. and Young Pine Rd. S-T-R: 08-23-31 TRACT SIZE: 1.9 acres DISTRICT#: 4 LEGAL: YOUNG PINES COMMERCIAL 70/47 LOT 1 PARCEL ID: 08-23-31-0000-00-009; 08-23-31-3749-00-010

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  • 4 weeks later...
HankStrong Town

HankStrong

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I had a first in regards to public hearings.  I watched the taping of the Sept 3rd BZA meeting on Orange TV.  Wow, that a horrible experience!  To be honest, I split it up over several days, just to get through it.

http://otv.ocfl.net/otv/bza/bza2015/bza090315/Default.html

Full disclosure: I drive past this potential WaWa on a regular basis and I'm hoping that it gets built.  I'm also hoping the light at River Ridge (part of WaWa's honeypot for this project) happens.  I regularly almost get plowed by some car pulling out here.  It is suggested in the video that if WaWa doesn't build here, the county wishes to close this intersection by extending the median to block it off.  This works for me, as well, BUT I like WaWa's product (although, I'm not a fanatic like many) and see the gas competition as awesome for me!

This area had an Albertson's gas station when I first started driving along this section of road.  It was about $0.25 higher than anyone else and I never used it.  This became a Shell (when the Albertson's grocery store became a Publix) that I also never used for the same reasons.  It became a 7-11 and started being competitive in price.  I began using it on occasion.  They built a new-style RaceTrac across the street and both stations are quite competitive now.  They are some of the lower-priced stations on the East side of town according to my Gas Buddy app.  A third player only benefits me more.

 

My feelings on the meeting are that the entire 1.5 hours could've been wrapped up in 5-10 minutes.

  1. The BZA is worried about setting a precedent.  UMMM... a variance never sets a precedent or it becomes the rule.  Each case is reviewed as it comes up.  If they use previous variances as precedents, they are doing their job wrong.  If the situation wasn't truly special enough to require a special exception and they granted it, they were wrong.
  2. The county is opposed because if they were for it, the rules are wrong.  DUH! This isn't in the rules.
  3. WaWa wants the sign because it stands to make them a lot more money if people going North, South, and East from the intersection can see the gas price and not just the Westbound folks and the people that were already heading East before the intersection.  DUH!
  4. My feeling is that the whole issue is revealed by the chairman who states something about projects that line pockets of the county shouldn't get someone a variance.  If you said "WaWa is giving all the County Commissioners a fat stack of cash to make this happen!" That's evil.  If you say "WaWa wants a minor concession of a sign to make them more money, but are willing to benefit the neighboring community as a whole with $1 million in upgrades to have that privilege." That's entirely different.  This is how things happen all over, all the time.  Company Z wants something, they say "Oh hey, government people, you know that ______ you can't afford?  If you let me have something I want, we'll build _____ for you."  It's up to those governmental bodies to determine if the cost is too high or if what that company wants REALLY benefits the community it serves.  It literally happens all the time, all over this county, the cities in this county, this state, this country, and a lot of the rest of the world.  It's the fundamental premise of easements.  If you give me a path across this land, the benefit to the community I'm trying to serve is so high, it is a win/win for everyone.  I make money, they get their service.

 

The county gets a signal they can't afford.  The neighbors get a retention pond that doesn't look like a Warsaw ghetto (and it does most of the time) and more gas competition.  WaWa gets more potential customers.

 

Win/win/win

 

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HankStrong Town

HankStrong

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The Curry Ford/Dean Rd (Young Pine) location is starting, but the actual store opening must be pretty far out.

 

Prior to building the WaWa, they have to:

  1. Construct a stop light at River Ridge & Curry Ford, this has begun
  2. Re-shape the retention pond to the East of the store, this has not begun
  3. Build an access road on the back edge of the property that runs from River Ridge to Young Pine, this has not begun
  4. Build an enhanced pedestrian crossing from the WaWa exit on Young Pine to the Publix plaza, this has not begun

THEN, they can build the WaWa.  Since only #1 is underway now, this won't be happening next Tuesday or anything.

Interested in seeing the positioning and layout for the Orange/SandLake location.

Is this on the NE corner where the other gas station used to be?

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  • 2 months later...
d4nz Unincorporated Area

d4nz

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On 11/16/2015 at 2:45 PM, HankStrong said:

The Curry Ford/Dean Rd (Young Pine) location is starting, but the actual store opening must be pretty far out.

 

Prior to building the WaWa, they have to:

  1. Construct a stop light at River Ridge & Curry Ford, this has begun
  2. Re-shape the retention pond to the East of the store, this has not begun
  3. Build an access road on the back edge of the property that runs from River Ridge to Young Pine, this has not begun
  4. Build an enhanced pedestrian crossing from the WaWa exit on Young Pine to the Publix plaza, this has not begun

THEN, they can build the WaWa.  Since only #1 is underway now, this won't be happening next Tuesday or anything.

Is this on the NE corner where the other gas station used to be?

I haven't seen any movement on #1 but they are starting to move dirt around on their land. I also saw some people doing work over by the retention pond on the Young Pine Road side.

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HankStrong Town

HankStrong

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They were working over the weekend on this project. 

 

They removed almost all of the fence around the retention pond, have almost the entire main site graded & you can tell where everything (building/pumps/parking lot) is going to be constructed, and have surveyed/laid-out where they will re-aligning the access road.

No clue why they started the intersection upgrade and bailed.  Maybe it required going back to the drawing board based on the buried utilities they found?  There was another wholly preventable accident there last week, so it is needed.  It's a shame they can't make it right turn only in both directions until the light is finished. 

Most of the wrecks are caused by impatience.  On the extremely rare occasion I go to McDonald's, that's usually the one I hit.  Unless it were 100% wide open and I needed to head West, I'd just turn right and make a U-turn at Dean Rd.  I'd bet solid money that would be faster in most situations.

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  • 2 weeks later...
d4nz Unincorporated Area

d4nz

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On 2/1/2016 at 11:27 AM, HankStrong said:

No clue why they started the intersection upgrade and bailed.  Maybe it required going back to the drawing board based on the buried utilities they found?  There was another wholly preventable accident there last week, so it is needed.  It's a shame they can't make it right turn only in both directions until the light is finished. 

Most of the wrecks are caused by impatience.  On the extremely rare occasion I go to McDonald's, that's usually the one I hit.  Unless it were 100% wide open and I needed to head West, I'd just turn right and make a U-turn at Dean Rd.  I'd bet solid money that would be faster in most situations.

It's what I do when I have to leave my neighborhood during peak times. Even then, making the right and trying to u-turn at the left turn before 417 can be a pain with the light timing.

Between cars not pulling all the way up in that intersection when turning left so that everyone can see, or not leaving space for me to sneak behind them when I'm making a left out of my neighborhood, it's just a huge mess trying to make any sort of left turn. Hope the light thing works itself out soon.. And also Wawa!

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  • 2 weeks later...
HankStrong Town

HankStrong

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They did the directional drills for the traffic signal power/controls this week.  It looks like they were spotting the anchors for the mast arms, as well.

The pond is coming along nicely, they have drained it and removed the old culverts.  They are installing the new culverts and re-shaping the ponds now.

On the main site, they are laying out the WaWa drainage and have the building pads compacted.

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