Long-delayed Lehigh Township store gains traction
Zoning board approves exceptions and variances for Turkey Hill mini-mart.
After five years of starts and stops, development of a new Turkey Hill mini-mart in Lehigh Township is gaining momentum.
Representatives of Cherryville Development LP went before the Lehigh Township Zoning Hearing Board on Thursday for special exceptions and variances tied to their updated plan for a new convenience store and fast-food restaurant opposite the existing Turkey Hill on Blue Mountain Drive.
Zoners on Thursday granted all of the variances and special exceptions recommended by the Planning Commission earlier in the week while adding some conditions and fleshing-out a few more.
Plans for a new Turkey Hill were first proposed to township officials in 2013, and at one point included Dollar General as a separate retailer.
The revised plan includes a drivethru restaurant as a co-tenant with the planned 7,440-square-foot building on a 3-acre parcel directly across from the existing Turkey Hill.
The new mini-mart, which includes 20 gas pumps, will take up 3,000 square feet with 2,800 square feet making up the restaurant.
Zoning approval following a vote on Monday by the township Planning Commission to recommend zoners grant variances to allow a driveway to be placed within 200 feet of a residential zone along with a vinyl fence and landscape buffering between the project site and abutting residential area.
They also voted 5-0 to recommend special exceptions be granted for a gas station and drive-thru restaurant, providing the applicant complete road widening at three points of the intersection of Blue Mountain Drive and Route 248 at their expense.
The developer must also abandon a well and remove underground fuel storage tanks at the existing mini-mart within 90 days of issuance of a certificate of occupancy for the new store; provide lighting at the entrance/exit points to the site on the land development plan; and comply with comments from the township engineer’s review letter.
Zoners also specified that the height of the vinyl fence on the property line abutting the residential area be 8 feet, and that landscape buffering consist of cypress and evergreen trees that must be fully mature within 18 months of planting, Zoning Officer Liz Gehman said.
Restrictions on the hours that the drive-thru restaurant can operate — no earlier than 5 a.m. and no later than 11 p.m. — were also imposed by the board, she said.
The mini-mart will be open 24 hours. Steve Fuller, a real estate agent for Turkey Hill, told planners in November that EG Group, which earlier this year purchased Kroger Co.’s convenience store units, which include Turkey Hill convenience stores, is negotiating with roughly half a dozen national brands to occupy the drive-thru restaurant.