CRANBERRY TWP — The township supervisors Thursday night voted to approve development plans for a Cracker Barrel restaurant and Element hotel on a 5.86-acre property on the south side of Route 228 near the intersection with Cranberry Woods Drive.

It is the former location of the restaurant ECHO.

The 9,125-square-foot restaurant will be the chain’s first location in Butler County. It includes a dining room and a Country Store retail space.

As requested by the township planning advisory commission, the plans were revised to include false windows and an awning on the rear of the restaurant to improve the view from the hotel.

The Element Hotel, a brand owned by Marriott, will be six stories, 69,900 square feet and have 102 rooms.

Under the plans, the developer would also repave and make improvements to Longtree Way, a one-way road giving access to the property from Route 228 that had fallen into disrepair.

The supervisors voted unanimously in favor, though Supervisors John Skorupan and Dick Hadley expressed concerns about parking.

“It’s going to be packed,” Skorupan said.

The township’s ordinances called for a minimum of 140 spaces for the restaurant, but the developer, Mars Real Estate Holdings, proposed only 95 and requested the township waive that requirement.

After doing a study of peak traffic times for each business, they concluded that the shared total amount of parking on the property would be sufficient, engineer John Frydrych said.

The hotel and restaurant will be owned separately, but will have agreements in place to share parking spaces. There will be 102 spaces for the hotel, making a total of 197 in the development. The two property owners also will jointly maintain Longtree Way.