United Dairy Farmers presents redesign of Granville–State Route 3 site; commission raises access, lighting and dumpster placement

United Dairy Farmers and project architects presented a preliminary major‑commercial site plan to the City of Sunbury Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept. 22 for the existing UDF property at the corner of Granville Road and State Route 3. John Lucas of K4 Architecture and Kenneth Swanson of UDF described a full teardown and rebuild that would remove existing tanks and replace the store with a new 6,500‑square‑foot building, six dispensers and updated exterior finishes.

Why it matters: Commissioners said the proposal would be a notable upgrade to a high‑traffic corner, but raised operational and safety issues including driveway alignment, truck circulation, dumpster placement and exterior lighting. The site’s access affects local traffic flow and pedestrian safety on a corridor frequently used by vehicles and people on foot.

Project team members said the rebuild would likely require the site to be taken fully offline for nine to ten months while new tanks and the building are installed. They described pump reconfiguration to remove an underutilized middle dispenser and to improve circulation; photometric lighting plans and a full site photometric analysis were included in the packet.

Commission comments focused on three engineering and operational items: shifting the Granville access about 50–55 feet to align with the nearby ACE Hardware access to create a matched right‑in/right‑out condition; relocating or screening the dumpster away from State Route 3’s frontage; and ensuring the fueling and queuing geometry would safely accommodate tank delivery trucks. Commissioners also asked for clarification on parking counts and average queuing length at peak periods to verify the proposed circulation and queuing distances.

Several commissioners urged balancing lighting for customer security with reduced spill to nearby residences; applicants said they had included photometrics and would refine them to reduce spill and address resident concerns. Staff and commissioners asked the applicant to model traffic and tanker turning radii based on the proposed alignment and to return with refined drawings that reflect operational input and the requested changes.

The commission offered preliminary, generally favorable feedback on building aesthetics and encouraged the applicant to return with final development plans and the engineering team’s responses to access, truck circulation, dumpster location and lighting questions.