Planning Commission approves Panda Express site plan, grants variances for Kent Road location

The Stow City Planning Commission on an aye vote approved application PC2025-002, a site-plan and conditional-use request to allow a Panda Express restaurant to be built at the property between Mission Baptist Church and the Meijer gas station on Kent Road.

The project, as described by planning staff and the applicant's architect, proposes a roughly 2,700-square-foot counter-service restaurant with two drive-through lanes, 36 parking spaces (the applicant said 36 will be provided; the code requires 28), and a circulation plan that uses shared access with the adjacent Meijer driveway rather than a direct curbcut to Kent Road.

Planning staff told the commission the property is currently occupied by a vacant single-family house and accessory structures that would be removed for the project. The applicant, Eric Ablen of Heights Venture Architects, said site constraints — including wetlands and an existing detention pond at the rear of the lot — limited how far the building and parking could be placed toward the back…