COPLEY TWP.: Site plans for the proposed Walmart and Sam’s Club on Rothrock Road are being distributed in person to various agencies and township departments.
The detailed plans, which include everything from floor layouts to detention basins, are spread out on 30- by 40-inch sheets of paper filling 96 pages — way too much to mail or condense to email.
Zoning officials personally are making the deliveries to the Summit County Engineer’s Office, the Summit Soil and Water Conservation District, Copley’s police and fire departments, the city of Fairlawn and other recipients.
A set of plans also is available for public viewing at township hall.
Walmart now owns the Copley property, after purchasing the vacant land Sept. 20 for $480,000. The proposed site covers 39.2 acres.
Walmart wants to relocate its Walmart and Sam’s Club stores from Rosemont Commons in Fairlawn to the undeveloped area. The retailer wants to open a 24-hour supercenter with a full grocery line and a wholesale club that would offer a fuel station.
Company officials have said they need to move because there is not enough space available for expansion at the current sites.
There are proposed sidewalks on Rothrock Road in the new plan, four detention basins and retaining walls to catch stormwater outflow. The site would set back 392 feet from the street.
The one-story-buildings would be 35 feet high. The Walmart building would cover a total of 152,078 square feet, and Sam’s Club, 136,367 square feet.
The plans are similar to the previous site plans, but are more detailed and indicate a few changes.
The new plan calls for 699 parking spaces in Walmart’s parking lot compared to 740 vehicles previously, and 608 spaces at Sam’s Club instead of 682.
There are 34 proposed landscape islands in the parking lots that would have a variety of planted shrubbery. The landscaping in front of the building and along the property will have 12 varieties of trees, with ash, maple and locust being the most popular.
There are still three entrances off Rothrock Road, but the main entrance’s traffic light would not be at the intersection of Rothrock Road and Fairway Park Drive, but farther south of Rothrock Road.
Residents in the Fairway Park apartments on that street complained that a traffic light there with the store traffic would be too dangerous for school children who would get on and off buses at the intersection.
The apartments’ residents also complained about truck noise and truck lights. The plan calls for a truck route for deliveries toward the back with turnaround areas of 130 feet outside of each building.
Walmart is proposed as the first building on Rothrock Road from Route 18 next door to Sherwin-Williams and h.h. gregg.
There are several methods listed to remove the 1.59 acres of wetlands and 1,498 feet of stream on the site. The wetlands would be restored at the Wilderness Center’s Fox Creek-Mill Tract, just north of Wilmot in southwestern Stark County.
The plan places the fuel station in front of Sam’s Club.
Fairlawn Mayor Bill Roth and City Council took pre-emptive action early in 2011 by shutting down a portion of Rothrock Road in an effort to stop the anticipated increase in traffic if the building site were approved. A sign limiting access to local traffic is posted at Cleveland-Massillon Road for access only to Sawgrass Road.
Signs are in place, but no concrete barriers. However, barriers are set up at the intersection of Rothrock Road and Rosemont Boulevard to curb potential shoppers from taking a shortcut through the Rosemont Ridge development.
Residents in that allotment asked the city to close the road.
A gate system also has been installed at the intersection in case the plan is approved.
Parties are awaiting a ruling from Summit County Common Pleas Judge Alison McCarty on whether the roadblock on Rothrock Road is legal. Copley Township filed the suit in July 2011; the case was heard last summer.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.