BUTLER TWP — A shopping complex to be anchored by a Dick’s Sporting Goods store, a convenience store, and a Marcellus Shale gas drilling site all were approved Tuesday night by the township planning commission.

The commission recommended all three plans move to the township commissioners April 20 meeting for approval, contingent on an individual set of conditions for each. The well site also is scheduled for a public hearing that night.

Shopping complex

“Tweaks” have been made to the plan to construct a Dick’s Sporting Goods store, a Bob Evans restaurant and a building shared by Mattress Firm and a Starbucks Coffee shop on 5 acres near New Castle Road’s intersection with the Route 422 cloverleaf, according to representatives of California-based developer United Growth.

The sizes and uses of the stores shown to the planning commission Tuesday night were the same as those seen earlier by both the planning commission and the commissioners: 61,000 square feet of leased retail space divided into three buildings: a stand-alone 50,000-square-foot structure for Dick’s, a stand-alone 4,274-square-foot structure for Bob Evans and a 6,000-square-foot building shared by Mattress Firm and Starbucks.

However, in the new plan, the location of the buildings is repositioned to allow what had been a right-in, right-out access off New Castle Road to include a left-hand turning lane eastbound with a 175 foot stacking lane.

Therefore traffic entering the complex from Route 422 no longer would have to go to the light at Hindman Road and drive behind the Sheetz convenience store. Only traffic exiting the shopping plaza and turning left onto New Castle Road would use the roads — K & L Lane and Hindman Road — that wrap around the convenience store.

The original traffic pattern had been a major sticking point when the plan appeared before the planning commission in the fall and the supervisors early this year.

Township engineer Dan Deiseroth said the revised plan was a good example of a developer hearing the officials’ concerns and taking measures to address them.

Well site

XTO Energy is proposing to build a one-well drilling pad on the 52-acre Bristol Farm off Dutchtown Road.

Attorney Shawn Gallagher, representing the company, told the commission the plan is “substantially similar” to the company’s six other local well pads. However, in this case, the company is proposing one well at the pad.

The planning commission, on the advice of Deiseroth, did not recommend approval of the company’s request to build a stormwater management plan smaller than the township ordinance mandates. Instead the commission recommends the township commissioners approve the plan only after the company brings it into compliance with the stormwater management rules.

Jesse Hines, township zoning officer, said the plan, if it meets the conditions, would not only comply with existing township rules, but also would comply if proposed changes to the zoning laws regulating drilling were approved.

Although drilling and wells have been a hotly-contested issue in the township, only two residents spoke during this meeting — both regular attendees to township meetings.

Mark Krenitsky, one of the owners of Krendale Golf Course, where a different well has been approved, said he is in favor of drilling because it brings commerce to the region.

Sam Hoswell, a member of the anti-drilling group Section 27 Alliance, said he is against this well because there already are enough in the township.

“Enough is enough,” he said.

Hines said if this well is approved it will be the eighth in the township.

Speedway

Speedway, a chain of convenience stores mainly in Ohio, is proposing to build a 3,900-square foot convenience store on property bordered by Fairground Hill Road and Austin and Hansen avenues.

In addition to the store, the plan calls for a 7-gas pump island that would offer 14 fuel emissions and 24 parking spaces, according to Todd Fleming of the New Jersey developer Greenberg Farrow.

The property near the Tanglewood Center would combine nine existing lots into one 1.4-acre parcel. To make way for construction, two existing buildings would be demolished: a single-family, two-story house and the former Paul Laurence Dunbar Community Center building.

The proposal shows full access entrances off Fairground Hill Road and Austin Avenue, and a right-in, right-out only at Hansen Avenue.

Hines told the planning commission that the proposal was a “good use and needed use” in that community.