CENTERVILLE — The Kroger Corp. has applied to the Centerville Planning Commission for a major use special approval that will allow it to tear down the 105,000 square-foot Centerville Elder-Beerman/Bon Ton store to make way for a 134,800 square-foot Kroger Marketplace.

The planning commission plans to briefly discuss the plans in a work session scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 10 in the law library of the municipal building, 100 W. Spring Valley Road, according to Centerville Planner Steve Feverston.

A public hearing on the application and two variances for the project will go before the planning commission at its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. June 24, Feverston said. The planning commission's recommendation at that meeting would then go to Centerville City Council for a public hearing and final decision on the requests, he said.

Feverston said Kroger submitted its request Tuesday, June 3. The new building would be single-story, he said.

The vacant building directly south of the Elder-Beerman store that once housed Imperial Food Town and then the old Eavey's store, would also be torn down to make way for more parking, Feverston said.

Everything except Grismer Auto Service Center would be torn down, he said.

Feverston said the Elder-Beerman store sits on a zero-lot line with the Centerville Place shopping center property to the north and needs a variance to rebuild on the site because the city requires a 20-foot side setback. A parking variance is also necessary because the Elder-Beerman store shares parking with the Centerville Place shopping center to the north and a variance would be necessary to continue that arrangement, Feverston said.

Feverston said he has not heard whether Bon-Ton plans to relocate its Elder-Beerman/Bon-Ton store or just close it. The company's public relations spokesperson did not been return a call.

Jonathan Wocher, a Cincinnati planner working on the project, said he could not speak for Kroger or Elder-Beerman/Bon-Ton and could not comment on whether this store would take the place of one planned in Warren County at Ohio 73 and Ohio 48 and what will happen to the existing Kroger store a block north of the Elder-Beerman.

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