The Butler planning commission voted Wednesday to recommend that city council approve a conditional use application from Allegheny Health Network for a parking plan for a proposed 30,000-square- foot cancer clinic near Pullman Center Business Park.

Commission members unanimously voted to recommend approval of the conditional use to have 221 off-street parking spaces, which is 62 less than the city zoning ordinance requires.

The recommendation will be forwarded to city council, which will hold a hearing on the matter during its Jan. 23 meeting.

If council approves, the sale of the property would close in a month or two, construction would start in March and the clinic would open in January 2019, Mark Hartman, AHN senior program manager, said after the meeting.

The meeting went on despite a power outage in City Hall and the North Street area caused by a fire Wednesday afternoon on Jefferson Street.

AHN applied for the conditional use exemption instead of a zoning variance because a provision in the conditional use regulations allows its use if the applicant submits a parking study supporting the requested reduction in the number of parking spaces, said Shawn Gallagher, an attorney with Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney, who represented AHN at the meeting.

The study, based on parking at other AHN facilities, shows 99 to 191 parking spaces would be needed at the facility, Gallagher said. The ordinance requires 283 spaces, he said.

The application submitted for the conditional use indicated that the ordinance required 271 spaces.

City building code official John Evans said AHN’s plan meets city regulations and the number of parking spaces is the only outstanding issue.

Joe Saeler, director of the Community Development Corporation of Butler County, said the Butler County commissioners and the CDC support the project and the request for a reduced number of parking spaces.

“We’re excited to see them come to town,” Saeler said.