Hermitage Planning Commission has approved a land development plan for St. John the Baptist Carpo-Russian Greek Orthodox Church to build a new house of worship, but the church has some hoops to jump through before the city will sign off on the project.

The church, which is in Sharon, wants to build an assembly hall and attached fellowship hall -- total square footage is 12,000 -- on the same site of its cemetery at South Hermitage and Morefield roads.

City officials said the church needs to have vegetation buffers between the property and the residential property to the east, and church board president Steve Lukac said he had no problem with that.

However, he said a city recommendation to join the parking lot behind the existing chapel and the new parking lot is not possible because of the elevation.

For appearance reasons, the city has asked the church to reconsider a stormwater retention basin in front of the property, along South Hermitage Road.

Lukac said he is staying away from underground stormwater storage because of the cost, and hopes to design the basin so that there will be no standing water. It will look like a well-maintained lawn, he said.

The land development plan goes to city commissioners for consideration.