JACKSON TWP — The township's planning commission voted Wednesday to recommend approval for the Seneca Valley aquatic facility.

Seneca Valley School District hired IKM to design a new aquatic center, and a Langan Engineering project manager, Ben Hunter, who is working on the site explained the schematics, landscaping and location of the to-be-constructed aquatic center to the planning commission at Wednesday night's meeting. Hunter said a goal of the project is to avoid causing issues to neighboring facilities, like the track and intermediate high school.

“We want to not disrupt those facilities,” he said.

To do this, necessary landscaping requirements, like high-level and low-level shrubbery, will need to be placed in specific areas around the side of the facility facing Ryan Gloyer Middle School.

“With the school campus, the best open spaces are already being used as athletic campuses,” Hunter said, “so it would be difficult to relocate those to another spot.”

The commission asked questions about lighting and parking, for which Hunter said there are no foreseeable problems because the area is already equipped with lights. Sporting events already take place after school hours, so more parking won't be required.

Hunter said some of the plan's specifics are still being reviewed, and those reviews will be available to the township upon completion.

Matt Hansen, the IKM architect working on the new natatorium, told the Seneca Valley School Board at a meeting in January the design is progressing well and feedback from district representatives has been helpful in the process.

Contract bids will be solicited later this month, Hansen said during the January school board meeting, and construction is still estimated to begin in June with completion targeted “the first quarter of 2020.”