By Charlotte Caldwell
[email protected]
SIDNEY — The Sidney Zoning Board of Appeals approved variances for the McDonald’s rebuild, the new location of Sidney Auto Tech, and the new Sheetz gas station at a meeting on April 15.
Permit Solutions Inc., on behalf of Franchise Realty Interstate Corp., requested a variance for McDonald’s at 2215 Michigan St. to reduce the landscape buffer along Michigan Street from 15 feet wide to 13.22 feet wide to limit potential conflicts between drive-thru vehicles and non-drive-thru vehicles. City staff concluded there would still be substantial space between Michigan Street and the drive aisle. The same company also requested increasing the maximum lot coverage at McDonald’s from 82.8% to 82.9% due to the first variance.
BEEM Construction Inc., on behalf of GT Automotive Land Holdings LLC, requested a variance to increase the maximum front yard setback from 60 feet to 120 feet at 2857 Michigan St. The property will have an 8,800-square-foot building built on it and be the new home of Sidney Auto Tech. City staff found the setback would align the building with the other buildings on this part of Michigan Street to create a uniform look. The same company also requested a variance to the commercial building design standards to make the exterior of the building 87.72% metal cladding on the side elevations and 100% metal cladding on the rear elevation, which exceeds the maximum of 20% allowed by the standards.
Prime AE Group Inc., on behalf of MSGA Development Ltd., requested a variance to increase the maximum front yard setbacks at the new Sheetz gas station to be located west of St. Marys Avenue and south of Interstate 75. The setbacks will be 116 feet from Interstate 75, 92 feet from St. Marys Avenue, and 134 feet from Shingle Oak Drive.
The same company also requested two additional variances to the gas station. One will allow more than one-third of the total parking spaces in the front yards. There will be 28 out of the proposed 40 parking spaces in the Interstate 75 and Shingle Oak Drive front yards. The other variance was to the corner elevation transparency requirement, which requires transparency to be equal on every corner. There will be 32.77% transparency on the Shingle Oak Drive elevation, 9.34% on the Interstate 75 elevation, and 26.01% on the St. Marys Avenue elevation.
Board member Jim Fortkamp was not in attendance and was excused by the board.
The next zoning board meeting is scheduled for May 20 at 4 p.m. in City Hall’s council chambers.
