Members of Cranberry Township’s Planning Advisory Commission on Monday gave the green light to plans for a new Sheetz gas station and convenience store on Freedom Road.

Sheetz officials now will seek approval from the township’s Board of Supervisors at its July meeting for the 6,558-square-foot station and freestanding 1,049-square-foot automobile wash.

Planned for the site of a former beer distributor on Old Freedom Road, the proposed gas station would be built about 300 feet from a smaller Sheetz station that’s been on Freedom Road for the last 15 years.

That bustling station, which commission Chairman Jim Colella earlier this year referred to as “chaotic,” has four gas pumps. The new Sheetz will have eight pumps.

Ron Henshaw, Cranberry's director of community development, said the building is considered a “four-fronted” facility, although its main entrance will face west toward the dental office of Dr. Michael Sradomski. Sheetz officials are working with the dentist on the project. 

One side of the building will face Walmart in the Cranberry Square shopping center, and the back of the store will face Freedom Road.

The original plans for the new Sheetz –- which debuted at the March planning commission meeting -- called for the back of the building to be all brick. At the request of planning officials, plans for using bricks were dumped in favor of faux windows.

“That certainly is much better than what we saw for the conceptual plan,” Colella said after viewing the updated drawings.

The new Sheetz station will be accessible from both Freedom and Old Freedom roads. The Freedom Road entrance to the facility is slated to be located at an intersection with a traffic signal directly across from an entrance to the Cranberry Mall.  

During the meeting, Freedom Road resident Dan Page told board members he is concerned the development will add more traffic to an already-congested section of Freedom Road.

“That part of the road has become a drag strip,” he said.

Sheetz leases its current property from J.J. Gumberg Co., a real estate development company that also owns the Cranberry Mall. David Mastrostefano, engineering permit manager for Sheetz, said the company would remove its signs and underground distribution tanks that hold petroleum when it leaves the property.

If the project receives township approval, Mastrostefano has said he hopes to start construction next year.