A Walgreens Drug Store/Starbucks Coffee complex proposed for the site of the landmark Chesterfield's Restaurant in North Huntingdon has hit a snag.

Walnut Capital Partners, a Pittsburgh-based developer, wants to purchase 6.5 acres of landlocked property owned by the municipality to substantially reduce storm-water management costs and improve aesthetics of the project site.

The township commissioners are considering selling the parcel by public bid or auction. It abuts the 84-acre site of the former Maple Drive-in Theater, where the township Public Works and Maintenance Complex now is.

Last week, the township Planning Commission voted, 6-0, to recommend approval of the subdivision and a revised project site plan to the municipality's commissioners. Dan Palmer abstained from voting.

Mr. Palmer owns the township-based Repal Construction Co., which razed Chesterfield's and is the project contractor for Walgreens and Starbucks.

Site and storm-water management plans, approved last fall by the planners and commissioners, included an expensive underground collection box system with drainage down a sloping hill at the rear of the property along Route 30 West.

A 15-foot retaining wall was required to ensure stability of the slope.

The revised storm-water management plan calls for construction of a retention pond and elimination of the wall.

Senior project manager Adam Law, of Hampton Technical Associates, said that when the original storm-water management plan was designed, he was unaware the township-owned tract was available.

"We discovered a cheaper way to do it," Mr. Law said. "Eliminating the retaining wall reduces the cost substantially."

The revised site plan does not affect the design of the two buildings or the proposed new intersection of Route 30 and Lincoln Way.

Mr. Law estimated the land acquisition will likely delay the start of project construction "a couple of months." He said the target for completion is fall 2009.

Township Planning Director-Engineer Andrew Blenko said the tract being sought for purchase is zoned for planned economic development while the Walnut Capital property along Route 30 is commercial.

Mr. Blenko said Walnut Capital Partners would be expected to maintain isolation of the retention pond area from an existing upscale housing development north of the parcel now owned by the township.

"They should be OK with isolation from Route 30 by minimizing the number of trees they intend to cut down," Mr. Blenko added.

A retail complex being developed by W.D. North Huntingdon Investors will include another Walgreens. It is about three miles east on Route 30 at the entrance to Norwin Hills Shopping Center. That project is under way.