Published: April 09, 2008 11:23 pm      

Sheetz project gets blessing from Windber planning panel

WINDBER — A controversial new Sheetz store project moved ahead Wednesday with conditional recommendation by the borough planning commission.

The Altoona-based company must satisfy PennDOT requirements, get its stormwater management plan approved, review utility easements and consider several visual enhancements.

“We do not disagree with any of the conditions,” Sheetz attorney John Kacher said.

Kacher and other Sheetz representatives answered a series of 13 concerns raised by the planning commission, including flood-plain, traffic, lighting, and fuel storage issues.

The commission asked whether the traffic study reflected peak flows created by events at the nearby community building and railroad traffic coming through the borough.

“When we submit a traffic study, we can’t say we think it’s busy on these days or those days,” said Ronald A. Sybert Jr., engineering manager with Trans Associates of State College. PennDOT directs the times and days, he noted.

Sensors will control the traffic and keep cars from waiting on the tracks, he said. Sheetz will upgrade all four corners of the 15th Street and Graham Avenue intersection with wheelchair ramps, crosswalks and pedestrian signals.

On a suggestion by Virginia Pruchnik, Kacher said the company would consider incorporating a false-front design into the side of the store facing Graham Avenue.

Wednesday’s 4-1 vote to recommend the project came less than two months after the planning commission rejected the site plan, asking for information on traffic studies and compliance with the borough’s comprehensive plan.

The Feb. 13 meeting included lengthy comments and questions from the public – many opposed to a modern convenience store in the heart of the historic business district.

“This was a little more structured meeting,” developer R. Michael Boland of Somerset said after Wednesday’s approval.

The borough can’t require a developer to follow the comprehensive plan unless it is incorporated in zoning and planning ordinances, commission Solicitor William Seger said Wednesday.

“The plan is a wish list,” Seger said. “If they are complying with the ordinances, that’s what they are required to do.”

Boland obviously was pleased with Wednesday’s recommendation, in contrast to his angry presentation at Tuesday’s borough council meeting.

There, he defended the project as a legal use in a commercial district, blasting those who criticized the current property owners for selling their real estate.