Plans for a restaurant, hotel and business offices in Springfield Township have been put on hold after 28 acres of Grove City Airport property to be developed turned out to be less than a dozen acres.

"Chapel Grove Corp. is re-evaluating their options. Obviously if there's not more land available, there's not as much of a return," said borough Councilman John Inman. He is also chairman of the Grove City Airport committee.

In May, council gave the go-ahead to creating a final lease agreement with the Pittsburgh-area based development company for 28 acres of airport property. Plans at the time included the construction of a Hometown Hampton Inn and a restaurant from a national chain.

But after a survey of the wetlands on the property, and making sure that the endangered Massasauga rattlesnake was not living in any of the wetlands, it was found that wetlands took up more than half the acreage of the site.

Inman said the real estate development corporation was researching exactly what kind of businesses could fit into the reduced size of the available property. "We're waiting for him to come back to us with an alternative plan," said Inman, referring to Richard Hartung, a representative of Chapel Grove Corp.

"The deal is still moving forward -- just not as fast as we hoped for," Inman said. "If he decides not to do anything, we'll pursue other options, but at this point we've not done that."

Hartung said the corporation is still interested in developing the property but will have to scale back its plans.

"We're still interested and still going to do something if everything gets squared away," he said.

The corporation also plans to develop an approximate 140-home area called Legends of Grove City on Center Church Road next to Grove City Country Club in both Pine and Liberty townships.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Sherris Moreira-Byers at sbyers@sharonherald.com