The Warren County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a rezoning request to pave the way for a propane substation in Pine Grove Twp.

The subject parcels owned by Lictus Keystone, Inc. are located just south of and west of the Pine Grove surgical center complex as well as that complex itself.

It’s a request that is complicated by a 50-year owned planned development that sharply limited potential development in that area.

Planning Director Michael Lyon said the planned development zoning designation there was first created in 1971, revised in 1997 “to make it a race track which never came to fruition” and then in 2007 by Warren General Hospital.

That 2007 update limited development on four parcels in that area to a medical campus, education facility and senior independent and assisted living.

Lyon said the recommendation is to change the parcels to a business transitional zoning designation.

“Our business has grown,” Lant Lictus told the planners.

He said Lictus Oil and Propane has been in business in Clymer, N.Y. since 1960 with customers now in Russell, Scandia and south of Warren.

“(We) plan on putting a substation there,” he said, “to make propane deliveries for heating customers in the area.”

The recommendation will now go to the county commissioners, who will make a final decision on the proposal after a public hearing.