$2.2 Million Get Go Station Proposed in Fairlawn

The Fairlawn Planning Commission will meet Thursday to review plans for a Get Go gas station at the “blighted” West Market Street property that formerly served as Cavalier Cleaners and Ahern’s Florists.

The $2.2 million project proposed by Giant Eagle Inc., headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, requires a conditional use permit, consolidation of the lots at 3120 and 3130 W. Market St. and preliminary site plan approval.

The planning commission meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in council chambers at City Hall.

According to an application filed with the city on August 17, Giant Eagle is proposing construction of a 2,080-square-foot convenience store, six “multiple product dispenser pumps” offering 12 fueling stations covered by a canopy and an underground fuel storage tank field.

The 1.5-acre property at the southwest corner of West Market and Trunko Road is in a B-2 Retail Business zoning district, where gas stations are a conditional use.

Giant Eagle officials said in their application that the project “will result in the redevelopment of a blighted property. The proposed use would be in context with the existing commercial development corridor along West Market Street.”

A likely topic of discussion Thursday will be the project’s impact on West Market Street traffic, which is quite heavy most weekdays.

The project first appeared on the planning commission’s September agenda. The issue has essentially been tabled since then because Giant Eagle needed to have a traffic study done. Then, said Chris Randles, Fairlawn building and zoning commissioner, that study needed to be reviewed by the city’s traffic engineering consultant.

Giant Eagle’s traffic impact study, conducted by TMS Engineers Inc. in Stow, was submitted to the city prior to the Nov. 10 planning commission meeting.

reports that motorists would access the proposed Get Go via one access drive on Market Street and another on Trunko Road. The Market Street access, as proposed, is a restricted-access drive that only allows right turns into and out of the site that would be located north of the proposed site location. The southernmost access drive along Trunko Road is a relocation of an existing full access drive. That drive location is proposed further to the north on the site plan.

On Nov. 23, Randles received of URS Corp. in Akron, who had reviewed the TMS study for the city. Westbrooks noted concerns related to access, particularly involving tanker trucks entering the site, and with traffic light timing in the area.

On Dec. 1, Michael Schweickart of TMS sent Giant Eagle officials .