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 of the parcel, which led to several requested variances.

Those variances, as presented, include a reduction from the standard 80-foot front setback to approximately 59 feet at the closest point, a west-side building setback of roughly 34 feet where 40 feet is required because the commercial parcel abuts residential zoning, and parking/circulation setbacks of as little as 18 feet from the right of way at the nearest point. The applicant also described pavement widths of about 9 feet along the west edge and about 6.5 feet on the east edge of the property. The building height was listed at about 23 feet.

Landscaping and tree impacts were described in detail: the project would remove roughly 58 trees, preserve 11 existing trees, and plant about 98 new trees plus 120 shrubs. The applicant said 10% of the parking area will be landscaped; staff noted the code requires 5 percent. Staff also said a 3.5-foot screening strip will be placed between parking and the right of way and a 6-foot screening buffer will be provided along the west property line per arborist recommendations.

The drive-through layout was explained by the applicant: the design uses a two-lane ordering configuration feeding a single pickup window (a 2-2-1 stacking pattern), includes a bypass lane, and provides turning radii that the applicant said were tested with large vehicles; the applicant said truck and fire-truck turning templates were run to confirm circulation. Access would be shared with the Meijer driveway into two ingress/egress points; one exit-only drive was proposed on the southern portion of the shared access to reduce conflict at the intersection.

Commissioners asked about aligning a future north-south connection to the church parking lot, whether Meijer would allow a two-way connection, potential Sunday service conflicts with church traffic, and whether the Meijer detention pond dictated driveway alignment. The applicant said discussions with Meijer limited where a northern connection could be placed because it would require reworking their detention pond; he said the potential church connection was discussed as a circulation benefit for the church and not primarily for the restaurant's benefit.

Commissioner [unnamed] moved to approve PC2025-002 with the site plan and variances as presented; the motion was seconded and carried with recorded yes votes from Mrs. Clancy, Mrs. Trepto, Mr. Basic and Mr. Dukulia. The motion outcome was recorded as approved.

The commission did not attach additional conditions on operations, hours or loudspeaker use; staff noted the supplemental regulations for drive-through facilities allow consideration of speaker systems as part of site-plan approval and said access-drive spacing rules are not applicable where there is no direct access to Kent Road.

The applicant and staff said future operational issues — for example, overlap of church service times and peak restaurant hours — would be monitored and could be addressed by operations or by site management measures such as temporary cones or signage if queuing becomes a local problem.