BUTLER TWP — The Butler Township planning commission recommended approval on Tuesday of a land development plan for Butler Eye Care to build a new office on Evans City Road.

The optometrist office is currently located in a leased building at 297 Evans City Road and the plans call for construction of a 7,000-square-foot building on a lot that the business purchased at 391 Evans City Road near Eberhart Road.

Dr. Michael McGrath, an optometrist at Butler Eye Care, said the new office will be about double the size of the existing office.

“It will be bigger. Our current office was not designed for optometry. I'm really looking forward to moving to the new space,” McGrath said after the meeting.

He said the office has about 15 employees and more employees work in the company's office in Chicora.

“Our goal is to continue to grow as a practice,” McGrath said.

Richard Craft, an engineer with Olsen Craft Associates in Butler, told commission members that Butler Eye Care would be located on the 4,400-square-foot second floor of the two-story building it wants to construct, and the first floor would be available for a future tenant.

The parking lot would have 42 spaces, which is three more than the zoning ordinance requires for offices, he said.

Because there is a median in the center of Evans City Road, vehicles would be permitted to enter the lot only by making a right-hand turn and exit the lot by making a right turn.

Zoning officer Jesse Hines said the property is zoned for commercial use, but eye care is not among the uses the ordinance allows on commercial property.

Eye care is considered a comparable use that is not specifically listed in the ordinance and the township zoning hearing board will meet Feb. 6 to consider Butler Eye Care's request for a comparable use approval, Hines said.

He said the business had to obtain comparable use approval for its current location for the same reason.

The township commissioners will vote on the land development plan at its Jan. 21 meeting.

McGrath said construction would start in April and be completed in November. The goal is to open the new office by the end of the year, he said, adding that the lease for the current office expires in May 2020.