REGULATIONS Commission supports plan to change zoning

The commission also is supporting a city bid for a planned technical park.
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- The city planning commission supports a plan to change current zoning regulations to allow nonconforming-use businesses to expand to 100 percent of their current building size.
The expansion is contingent upon sufficient land being available, and other zoning requests, such as building setbacks, can still be met.
City commissioners will have a public hearing on the zoning change Sept. 29.
The change is an offshoot of an issue involving Joy Cone Co., an ice cream cone manufacturer in a residential district on Lamor Road.
Joy Cone was in business there before zoning changes made the area a residential district. The company is considered to be a nonconforming use.
Plant addition
The company wanted to put a 168,000-square-foot addition on its 208,000-square-foot plant, but current zoning regulations limit its expansion to only 50 percent of its current building size.
There was no limit on the number of times a company like Joy Cone could come back to the city and ask for an additional 50 percent expansion, however.
The zoning change would allow such companies to do a one-time expansion of up to 100 percent.
The commission, meeting Monday, recommended the zoning change be approved.
The commission also voted to support a city effort to secure a $100,000 state grant to complete a series of walking trails in LindenPointe, the planned technical park project in which the city is a partner. The city will have to match the grant with another $100,000.