WAL-MART SUPERCENTER Planners delay subdivision vote

The commission wants to see if Wal-Mart first gets some zoning variances.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- The city planning commission has delayed acting on a subdivision needed for a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Pa. Route 18.
The issue came up for a vote Monday. A motion to approve it died for lack of a second.
Charles Rogers, commission chairman, said it will come up again at the commission's May 3 meeting.
Approval or rejection by the planning commission is only a recommendation, which then goes to city commissioners for the final decision.
James Tamber, planning commissioner, indicated the commission wants to see if the project is able to get a number of city zoning variances approved before it votes on the subdivision.
The 44-acre site is owned by members of the Kraynak family. They are seeking the subdivision so the land can be sold to Cedarwood Development Inc. of Akron, which is developing the site for Wal-Mart.
Kevin Fallon of Cedarwood attended the meeting to outline project plans.
Store and plaza
The subdivision request would set aside 29 acres for the Wal-Mart and an additional 10.14 acres for a small retail plaza that could include businesses like Starbucks, Radio Shack, Circuit City and Pier 1 Imports, Fallon added.
Small lots would be used as sites for restaurants or other small operations.
Fallon's presentation included an introduction of the site's formal Land Development Plan, but Rogers said that issue wasn't up for a vote at Monday's meeting.
The only agenda item dealing with Wal-Mart was the subdivision issue, and there were no legal problems with that, Rogers said.
Still, commissioners were reluctant to vote on the subdivision before the Hermitage Zoning Hearing Board renders a decision on zoning variances sought by Cedarwood.
The zoning hearing board will set a date to hear those issues.
What company wants
Cedarwood wants to eliminate a requirement that its parking lot have perpendicular cross traffic lanes for every 20 parking spaces in a row and that the lot have traffic islands for planting greenery.
The company also doesn't want to have to provide a driveway connection from its lot to a vacant commercial property to the north. The company also wants to eliminate a required tree buffer zone along the rear of its property adjoining Pine Hollow Run and seeks permission to put up a wall sign larger than the 200 square-foot maximum permitted.
Fallon said trees will be planted all over the project site and along the property lines, but putting trees at the rear of the property would involve planting in a wetland along the creek.
Cedarwood will eliminate one acre of wetland on the site but replace it with expanded wetlands on neighboring Shenango Valley YMCA property, Fallon said.
Access points
Plans call for three access points off Route 18. One would be controlled by a traffic light. A second would be a joint driveway with the YMCA, and the third would be a right turn in and out only driveway, he added.
He pointed out the project will make extensive use of a brick front on the supercenter and small retail plaza, something commissioners had requested.
In a related matter, Fallon said Wal-Mart told him it has a buyer for its store on the Shenango Valley Freeway. It will be remodeled to house multiple tenants.