Sheetz approved in Harrisville Township

HARRISVILLE TWP. — Approval for a new Sheetz gas station and store was granted Thursday by the Harrisville Township board of zoning appeals with the project set to break ground next spring. Construction will represent a roughly $5 million investment, installing a roughly 6,300-square-foot store and 1,500-square-foot gas station canopy on the southeast corner of Willow Road and state Route 83 (Avon Lake Road). As it stands, plans call for a right turn entrance to the site off of Willow and two driveways on Stelzer Drive, one entrance and one exit. Project planners said a proposed right turn entrance off of state Route 83 is no longer part of specs but could be added back in pending feedback from state and county officials. Board of zoning appeals approval in Harrisville Township is final with no future weigh-in from trustees required. Board members Kelly Frank, Dave Filous and Daniel Brown unanimously voted to greenlight the project. "Points are well-taken," said Brown, addressing a single resident who spoke in opposition. "I'm sure Sheetz has done a very good job in terms of the studies with traffic and market levels and income and everything. Otherwise, I don't think they'd be sticking out $5 million here. They don't feel it's going to fail. We're happy to have people voice their opinions. That's important." Resident Susan Zito said she and neighbors are worried about increased traffic that could complicate daily commutes in and out of the area as well as the new Sheetz potentially cutting into existing businesses' customer bases. "Sheetz could run BP and (Duke Duchess Shoppe) out of business," she told officials. "It's not going to run Pilot and (Love's Travel Stop) out because that's where the truck drivers go. I don't feel that it's necessary to have this many kinds of gas stations when we also have McDonald's, Wendy's, Arby's and Hardees. There isn't enough traffic for this. It's going to take away business from somewhere." Zito also asked if a new Sheetz will experience staffing difficulties similar to what's been seen across retail and commercial sectors. Sheetz project planner Ryan Balko said new stores typically hire 36 employees, half of which are full time. "We offer up to $5,000 a year for college tuition reimbursement and full health care packages for full time," he said. "There's a lot of reasons someone would want to work for Sheetz if their job doesn't offer those benefits. There's reasons we continue to be a successful company and I don't think the fear of what might happen as a result of the Sheetz going in should play a role (in approval)." Township Zoning Inspector Tom Guggenbiller said new main signage at Sheetz will be lower than existing nearby structures at Pilot. He also said local zoning code in regard to signage is going through a modernization process. "This is part of the reason our zoning code is being rewritten," he said. "A lot of it is extremely inadequate and dates back to the first writing of it in 1966. That is why this is such a huge variance, because basically anything has got to have a variance except for signs under 10 square feet. The pricing sign and their signage at the pylon level is much smaller than Pilot's." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.