BUTLER TWP — The Butler County commissioners Wednesday approved leasing 3 acres at the corner of Morton and Center avenues to Sheetz.

The $75,000 annual lease enables Sheetz to relocate its convenience store and gas station at the corner of Freeport Road and Saxonburg Boulevard to the other side of the intersection.

According to David Hazelet, Sheetz director of real estate, construction won’t begin for up to a year.

“It will take approximately nine to 12 months to complete design and engineering and to acquire all of the necessary local and state approvals,” he said in an interview.

Sheetz must apply to the township for a zoning change from agriculture to commercial. The agreement is contingent on the zoning change.

County Commissioner Bill McCarrier, board chairman, said in an interview the agreement has the twofold benefit of generating lease revenue and keeping a business on the tax rolls.

The 15-year lease, which has a renewal clause, includes inflationary increases after 10 years.

“It has escalators built in,” McCarrier said.

The new building would be 6,500 square feet. The existing store is 3,774 square feet.

Sheetz plans to have a drive-through as well as indoor and exterior dining areas at the new store.

McCarrier said none of the residents living in the vicinity of the intersection oppose the relocation.

“I had no complaints,” he said.

McCarrier said the one person who did express concern about lighting installed at the corner of Morton and Center lives too far away from the site to be affected.

Sheetz will remove the gas tanks and equipment from the current site.

“The existing building will be left on the current property,” Hazelet said.

What the property owner would do with the structure is unclear.

The county doesn’t have current contact information for the property owner because Sheetz pays property taxes on the land under its lease agreement.

Sheetz won’t disclose who leases the 2.7 acres at Freeport Road and Saxonburg Boulevard. Hazelet said company policy is to protect the privacy of land owners.

The deed is in the name of Julia Sherman of Hagerstown, Md., whose name doesn’t come up in a phone directory search.

According to Butler County Register of Wills records, she inherited the land in 1987 from her husband, Samuel Sherman, who was 70 at the time of his death.

The commissioners also approved amending a lease with farmer Harold Firch, reducing the number of acres he uses from 96 to 93 acres.

Firch, who grows corn and soybeans on the land, pays the county $15 an acre.