BUTLER TWP — Sheetz likes the township as is evident with plans to build two new convenience stores here.

One will be at Center and Morton avenues, which had been announced earlier, and one at the intersection of Route 8, and Vogel Road.

Sheetz representatives and developers met with township commissioners on Monday, getting approval for a new Sheetz across from the 7-11 store and Baglier Buick GMC at the top of Armco Hill on Route 8.

James McCormick, an attorney with Cain, Ackerman & McCormick in Pittsburgh, represented the Altoona-based convenience store company Monday.

Lead engineer Boyd Ernzer of Fahringer, McCarty, Grey, a landscape, architecture, engineering firm in Monroeville, said the Sheetz will take up about 2.15 acres, which is owned by NexTier Bank and J.B. McDivitt.

With the help of RBG Development, Sheetz will build a store with 14 gas pumps, 51 parking spaces and an automated car wash.

It will have 35 to 45 employees.

Henry Fownes, real estate site selector for Sheetz, said there is no construction timeline at this point because the project must get several additional approvals before it can move forward. After those approvals are received, then construction will depend on the time of year, with Fownes saying that Sheetz doesn’t build in the winter in this area.

The commissioners gave their unanimous approval to the project with eight contingencies including variances for the lighting and signs and approval for a highway occupancy permit from the state Department of Transportation.

Sheetz representatives will return to the township at 7 p.m. Wednesday for a public hearing by the township zoning hearing board to address the variances.

Ernzer said Sheetz will expand Route 8 for a right-turn only lane into the store as well as a left-turn lane from Vogel Road into the property and for turning left from Vogel onto Route 8 south.

The commissioners also discussed the Sheetz store that is to be built at Center and Morton avenues.

The township’s planning commission will hold a public meeting on changing the zoning of that property from A1, agriculture, to C1, commercial at 7 p.m., Oct. 2. The recommendation of the board will be discussed during a public hearing at the commissioners meeting 7 p.m. Oct. 15.