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Union Twp. officials OK variances for hotel
This is the third hotel planned for Union Township near Pa. Route 60.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A developer proposing an 80-room Microtel Inn just on U.S. Route 224 east of here in Union Township obtained zoning variances Monday necessary for the project to go forward.
Developer Ed Trainer Jr. said he is hoping for completion by June on the complex which, in addition to the hotel, would include a 70-seat pub and a 300-seat conference/banquet center. Trainer, who is from Beaver County, has an option on land at 10 Scotland Lane for the hotel. The land is behind Get-Go gas station, just east of Pa. Route 60. The property also will have an entrance from Route 224.
Members of the Union Township Zoning Hearing Board unanimously agreed to allow Trainer to exceed the 45-foot township building height limit for the four-story hotel, which will be 60 feet high. They also agreed with Trainer’s argument that because the hotel is located in a low spot, the hotel’s sign needed to exceed the size and height limits in order to be seen from Route 60. The board allowed his sign to be 75 feet high, instead of the normal 25-foot limit. The actual sign was allowed to be 10 by 20 feet or 200 square feet, exceeding the normal 150-square-foot limit. They also allowed a second 126-square-foot sign advertising the pub.
Union Township Supervisors supported granting all the variances. Their letter to the Zoning Hearing Board stated that the fire department had no objection to the height of the building and they agreed with Trainer’s explanation of why he needed to exceed the sign height limit. Two supervisors, Robert Eckert and Pat Angiolelli, attended the hearing Monday.
Solicitor Thomas Leslie said the law provides 30 days for an appeal of the Zoning Hearing Board’s decision to be filed but added that an appeal is unlikely because no one opposed the measure and supervisors supported it.
Township Zoning Officer Linda Farris said prior to Monday’s hearing that she issued a building permit this week for a Hampton Inn to be located on U.S. 224 just west of Wal-Mart. She said the developer plans construction in the spring, though preliminary work will be done earlier, weather permitting.
And in April, Andrew Menichino of Greenville announced plans for a “Hampton Inn style hotel” as part of a complex that would include a restaurant, bar and truck terminal on U.S. Route 224 just east of Pa. Route 551, near Route 60.