More Parking Requested for Norman Centre

Additional parking is in the works for Norman Centre.

During a public hearing Monday, Upper St. Clair commissioners heard plans for revisions to the parking area at the Route 19 shopping-office complex, which splits its property between the township and Bethel Park.

Robert Sapsara, vice president of Norman Centre management company Crossgates Inc., said the lease of longtime tenant Pearl Vision is expiring. A new restaurant tenant will occupy that space, and the change in use requires 22 additional parking spaces, according to his report to the township planning commission in June.

Most of the wooded buffer is to remain between the center and homes to the rear.

“Our plan is not invasive, by any means,” said Sapsara.

A nearby resident, Wayne Herrod, expressed concerns about the unkempt appearance of the buffer area and also about refuse that accumulates in and around the complex.

Sapsara and Arthur Schwotzer, property owner, said those issues will be addressed as it is possible to do so.

“We can’t control people who drive through our parking lot,” Sapsara noted.

The public hearing will continue during the commissioners’ Sept. 4 meeting.

Also on Monday, the board approved the township’s five-year capital improvement program for 2013-17. About half of the spending in the $67.3 million plan is targeted for upgrading sanitary sewers, which the township is required to do as per a 2004 administrative consent order.

Commissioners also awarded a $79,899 contract Dom Folino Construction for demolition of the barn that once served Mayview State Hospital. Plans call for the structure, near the Community and Recreation Center off Mayview Road, to be taken down in September.