The public will have its first opportunity on July 8 to weigh in on a Sheetz convenience store that would anchor a proposed 7-acre commercial development on the north side of Benns Church Boulevard.

According to a notice published in the June 24 edition of the Times, a public hearing on the special use permit applications of J. Michael Nidiffer on behalf of SFD Properties LLC is scheduled during the Smithfield Planning Commission’s 6:30 p.m. meeting. Same-day hearings are scheduled on Nidiffer’s application for highway retail commercial zoning and a sign exception to allow more than one flat wall sign on the building and, a wall sign that does not face the street, three canopy signs and a sign that would exceed three square feet.

The requested permits would allow a drive-thru facility and service station and a waiver of parking and loading requirements to exceed the maximum 37 parking spaces by seven, for a total of 44 spaces.

The Planning Commission got its first look in May at the rezoning proposal by SFD Properties and the project’s applicant, Interstate Realty, based in Bristol, Tennessee. The land is currently zoned community conservation, among the town’s most restrictive zoning designations, and is within the town’s entrance corridor overlay district, which requires structures built within 500 feet of a road designated an entrance corridor to conform to town character.

The proposal calls for a 6,139-square-foot Sheetz store with indoor and outdoor seating, a drive-thru window,  a 4,170-square-foot canopy gas station with six double-sided self-serve pumps, and two adjacent 2-acre commercial parcels that would be developed at a later date. 

A traffic impact analysis by the firm Kimley-Horn projects Sheetz alone would see 2,870 daily weekday trips, and the remaining undeveloped parcels, once built, would see an additional 736, for a total of 3,606 trips. Not all would be new vehicles added to the road, which saw 24,000 average daily trips in 2022 according to Virginia Department of Transportation data.

The Kimley-Horn study projects a “pass-by capture rate” of 63% at peak morning traffic and 54% at peak afternoon traffic. The terminology refers to the percentage of vehicles already on the road that would frequent Sheetz. The study projects 113 net new daily weekday peak hour morning trips and 153 net new peak hour afternoon trips.

The Sheetz would be on the opposite side of the highway from a proposed Wawa, Sheetz’ longtime rival. The Wawa, which would be on Isle of Wight County’s side of the town line at the corner of Benns Church and Turner Drive, was proposed in 2021 but has yet to break ground and remains stalled.

Sheetz would offer made-to-order food, a coffee bar and smoothies and would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Correspondence between the project’s developers and town officials indicates the store would have 30 to 40 employees, including 10 to 15 full-time staff, and would be a $9 million investment.

The plans propose two access points from Benns Church Boulevard. One is an existing road that straddles the town-county line and serves the Sherwin Williams paint store on the county side. The other would be right-turn-only access to and from Benns Church on the town side.