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A sign reading, "Join Wawa, " posted on the site of the 9.8-acre site of the former Patterson Chevrolet. Delco Development hopes to build a Wawa there with a convenience store and gas station.

(Mike Davis/ The Times of Trenton )

HAMILTON — Walter Steele believes a brand new Wawa that would be built within shouting distance of his own service station would force him out of business. Now, he's filed suit against the township zoning board in an attempt to shut down the project.

In his July 25 complaint, Steele — who owns a BP gas station on Route 33 — asked a Superior Court judge to overturn the board's approval of a 5,500-square-foot Wawa convenience store and gas station at the vacant Patterson Chevrolet site.

This afternoon, a courier formally served the complaint at the township’s community planning office.

Steele has argued that a Wawa gas station less than a quarter-mile from his BP station would take nearly 50,000 gallons worth of sales from him each month and force his business to close.

“You don’t have to be a rock-et scientist to figure out that Wawa ... has to take the business from somewhere,” Steele said yesterday evening. “I have to fight until the end. If not, it’s evident what’s going to happen.”

After a more than yearlong process, the zoning board in May approved Delco Development’s plans for a “super Wawa” and an additional 7,900-square-foot retail building on the 10-acre site, which has been vacant since the mid-2000s.

Future phases of the project involve redeveloping both Patterson Chevrolet and the adjacent former Hamilton Chrysler dealership into the “Hamilton Point Center.”

But in his complaint, Steele’s attorney William Potter requests the court halt construction of the project and reverse the zoning board’s decision.

Potter’s main argument is that the zoning decision is contrary to the township’s municipal land use law. He says the board has approved a project that was prohibited by township code and turning a blind eye to the effects on neighboring residents and businesses.

“The board failed to consider adequately the various negative impacts of the development on surrounding and nearby private properties ... and the impacts on the plaintiff’s (Steele) business property,” Potter wrote.

The argument is nothing new: Steele became involved in the process more than a year before the Wawa was approved, when the township council controversially voted to remove a “separation ordinance” that had prohibited new gas stations from opening up within 1,500 feet of existing stations.

And while the removal of that ordinance allowed for the redevelopment of what many call a blighted area, Steele says the blight would only expand as gas stations folded under the pressure of a shiny new Wawa within view.

“Among the negative impacts associated with the development are ... the ‘blighting effect’ due to the likely shutting down and eventual abandonment of the plaintiff’s gasoline filling station resulting from the loss of business due to the ‘24/7’ Wawa service station,” Potter wrote in the complaint.

Within two miles of the proposed Wawa sit eight gas stations, nearly all of which Steele said could face closure as a result of the Wawa.

“If it’s not me, then you’re going to see several gas stations close,” Steele said. “The numbers don’t lie. They’re fixing one blighted situation and creating three or four more.”

Construction of joint convenience store and gas stations, like the “super Wawa,” has surged over the last decade as it has become increasingly difficult for gas station owners to survive strictly on selling gas, National Association of Convenience Stores spokesman Jeff Lenard said last week. Wawa’s convenience store would tug harder on the wallets of impulse buyers, making it difficult for Steele and other station owners to compete on the strength of gas sales alone.

“You drive them inside more on a 12-ounce cup of coffee than you can on a 12-gallon fill-up,” Lenard said. “You may have a gas customer once or twice a week, but a coffee, newspaper or breakfast sandwich customer will be at your store every day.”

Potter also argued that the board didn’t consider the negative effects on neighboring residents of Herbert Avenue, who said the development would bring congestion to Route 33 and unwanted speeding traffic down their street, a popular shortcut between Route 33 and Nottingham Way.

Though the Herbert Avenue residents were among the most vocal opponents of the Wawa, they are not formally represented by Potter.

Among their concerns, Potter said, is that the project would result in new stormwater runoff and flooding during heavy rains. The board “accepted and relied upon several generalized statements” by Delco’s hired engineers and planners that all stormwater precautions had been taken.

“But no specific testimony or reports by the applicant’s witnesses quantified or factually demonstrated how this would be accomplished,” Potter said in the complaint.

Mike Davis may be reached at mdavis@njtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @byMikeDavis. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.