photo by: Eric Ayres

Dr. Scott Pockl of the Eyecare Center of Wheeling speaks before members of the Wheeling Planning Commission during a site plan review Monday night.

By ERIC AYRES

Staff Writer

WHEELING — Plans for a new Eyecare Center of Wheeling location came into clearer focus Monday night when members of the Wheeling Planning Commission granted final site plan approval for the proposed facility at a site in Clator.

Last month, the planning commission pumped the brakes on the proposal, granting preliminary site plan approval with the stipulation that a traffic study be completed and plans be presented regarding storm water management. Concerns over the already busy traffic along Mount de Chantal Road with only one access to and from WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital prompted planning commission members to carefully consider the notion of allowing additional traffic in this area near the Interstate 70 interchange at the Washington Avenue intersection.

The new Eyecare Center site is situated to the west of Washington Avenue on a strip of undeveloped property between Mount de Chantal Road and Wheeling Heritage Trail. Optometrists Dr. Scott Pockl and Dr. Peter Dormas plan to relocate their practice on Lumber Avenue in Elm Grove to an expanded site on Mount de Chantal Road.

Planning Commission members last month also expressed concerns about storm water management in this area, as homeowners in the adjacent residential neighborhood of Clator have experienced basement backflow issues in the wake of heavy rains in the past.

Both of these issues were addressed Monday night when the doctors returned before the planning commission with results of a traffic study that had been forwarded to them before the meeting. Architect Gus Kayafas also explained the plan for creation of a water retention pond on the property that would slowly drain the rainwater away from the site.

“We do have access to a dedicated storm line,” Kayafas noted, explaining that in addition to the retention pond, the storm water will also be managed through the existing storm sewer system that has a 36-inch line that is separate from any combined sanitary sewer system.

The expanded Eyecare Center is expected to have three doctors and 12 employees on duty five days a week at the proposed 6,200-square foot one-story facility. This business is projected to bring about five vehicles per hour, and according to the traffic study, an average of about 38 cars per hour already travel past this property.

“Based on their projected patient load, it’s — in my opinion — insignificant to the contributing traffic,” Kayafas said of the additional vehicles the business is expected to bring to the area. “It’s a level site, which is very rare in this town, let alone this state.”

The initial design will be to utilize the existing green space while bringing a building that will basically double the size of the current Eyecare Center location in Elm Grove. The plans call for about 40 parking spaces.

Pockl said there was a significant shortage of eye care for the Wheeling area.

“In recent years, there has been a decrease of eye care providers through retirements, and no new optometrists are returning to our area at the present. Our number one complaint from our established and new patients is ‘why does it take so long to get an eye exam?’ Our demand is more than we can supply at the present.”

Pockl said they are willing to invest a significant amount of money into helping expand this needed service and provide a place where new, younger optometrists can come and work.

“The need is bad because we’ve had six eye care professionals retire in less than a six-month period, and that’s really affected us,” Dormas said, noting that he was booked out for the next five months and Pockl was booked out for the next seven months.

The property is already zoned C2-Commercial, and members of the Wheeling Planning Commission unanimously agreed to adopt the site plan for the new Eyecare Center. Wheeling Building and Planning Director B.J. Delbert said the applicant can now move on to the construction document phase of the project.

“I just want to say thank you for providing the information that we requested,” Planning Commission member Howard Monroe told Kayafas and the doctors. “It was very helpful. It gave us more information to make a more informed decision.”

While the planning commission has given the green light to the Eyecare Center project, the panel last month denied a preliminary site plan for a proposed development eyed for an adjacent site on the undeveloped strip along Mount de Chantal Road. Representatives of Wash-Rite Express Car Wash had their proposal denied due to insufficient information last month after planning commission members expressed similar concerns about traffic and waste water management.

It was the second time Wash-Rite representatives appeared before the Wheeling Planning Commission in recent months with hopes of opening a new car wash in Clator. Last year, the planning commission rejected a zone change request to allow a new car wash to be built on property currently zoned residential near Figaretti’s Restaurant.