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Planning Commission conditionally approves Sheetz rebuild, grants four waivers for 1180 Manheim Pike
Summary
Lancaster City Planning Commission granted conditional approval for a 6,139-square-foot Sheetz store at 1180 Manheim Pike, including four waivers covering preliminary plan procedure, street-tree requirements and street lighting. The commission recorded conditional approval after staff said technical issues had been resolved.
The Lancaster City Planning Commission on Wednesday voted to conditionally approve a final land development plan to demolish the existing convenience store and rebuild a prototypical Sheetz at 1180 Manheim Pike.
Terry Delo with Integrated Consulting, the project engineer, told the commission the plan covers a 2.2-acre parcel in the city’s C-3 regional commercial zoning district and proposes a 6,139-square-foot store, 38 parking spaces, a rear drive-through, and five dual-sided fuel islands (10 fueling positions). Delo said the team has received its NPDES permit and coordinated with utilities and that most technical reviews were complete.
The plan includes demolition of the existing store, a reconfigured single gas canopy (replacing the site’s two smaller canopies), and a rear drive-through lane. The applicant will provide public utilities and a stormwater management basin on the north side of the building to manage increased impervious area. Kelly Brown, identified as representing Sheetz, attended the meeting to answer procedural questions.
Why it matters: The site sits at the Manheim Pike and Dillerville Road intersection and has been the subject of multiple technical reviews and consultations with city staff and the Shade Tree Commission. The waivers approved affect streetscape and lighting standards that the city typically requires for new commercial development.
Commission discussion and waivers: Staff and the applicant described four waivers the project requested and the reasons staff recommended conditional approval. The waivers are: (1) a waiver to allow the submission to be treated as a final plan (preliminary-plan submission procedure); (2) a waiver on street-tree location tied to constraints from existing overhead and underground utilities and a retaining wall along the frontage; (3) a waiver related to tree quantity and spacing because PennDOT would not accept additional right-of-way to accommodate trees; and (4) relief from the ordinance’s street-lighting requirements, although the applicant agreed to add two additional street lights beyond the site’s own fixtures to improve illumination at Garfield Avenue and the Manheim Pike access.
Staff indicated the applicant sought to meet the intent of the Shade Tree Commission and city arborist where possible, and noted a fee-in-lieu would cover approximately three trees the site cannot accommodate; the applicant said that fee is $1,500. Delo said the project team had gone twice to the Shade Tree Commission and worked with city staff to minimize departures from the ordinance.
Other specifics discussed: Commissioners asked whether employees would be retained during construction; the applicant said the intent is to keep existing employees and relocate them to other stores temporarily as needed. The project will discontinue a diesel pump and will provide two free air machines on site. The applicant said the new store is slightly larger (approximately 1,000 square feet larger) than the existing building and replaces two gas canopies with a single canopy as part of the typical Sheetz prototype used in recent remodels.
Vote and next steps: After discussion, the Planning Commission voted to conditionally approve the land development plan for 1180 Manheim Pike, including the four waivers and modifications described at the hearing. The motion carried. As a conditionally approved plan, the developer must complete outstanding technical or administrative items identified by staff before recording the final plan and receiving permits.
Provenance: The commission heard the application presentation from Terry Delo and asked questions of the applicant’s representative, Kelly Brown, before voting to conditionally approve the plan and waivers.
Ending: City staff will continue to work with the applicant to close remaining administrative items before final plan recording. The project team and staff indicated that most technical review comments were resolved at the time of the hearing.
