Sheetz seeks rebuild on East Patrick with fewer pumps, drive-through and lighting modification

Fran Zeller (Harris Smuriga & Associates) presented a scrape-and-rebuild site plan for the Sheetz on East Patrick Street, explaining the company routinely refreshes stores, will retain utility connections and most drive approaches, and proposes limiting fuel pumps on site from 16 to 12 while reducing parking from 52 to 38 spaces to accommodate a drive-through lane. “They're going to completely demolish the existing Sheetz...they're going to limit the pumps to...reduce the number from 16 to 12,” Zeller said.

Zeller said the tight site and surrounding commercial lighting make meeting the strict zero foot-candle property-line threshold impractical, so the project requests a lighting modification while submitting a revised photometric plan that reduces intensity. Commissioners pressed on safety and the lighting plan's expected effect: Commissioner Valencia asked whether the revised plan will make entrances safer; Zeller replied that some light spillover at entrances is intended to improve vehicular and pedestrian safety and that the revised plan shows reduced foot-candle intensity but not complete elimination at property boundaries. Commissioners also asked for clear pointer-based maps of the drive-through lane location and for traffic analysis of left-turn conflicts at the Monocacy Boulevard approach; staff suggested having the city traffic engineer present at the hearing to address congestion-management options.

Staff described the project as a typical rebuild that should modernize lighting and site flow, and flagged coordination with nearby road-widening work required by a separate project. No public commenters raised objections at the workshop. The applicant will submit updated lighting illustrations and coordinate traffic-engineering details for the public hearing.