The Milford Planning Commission gave its stamp of approval to the second proposed Hearthstone housing development Monday night.

The first time it saw the plans for Hearthstone II, in 2006, the commission voted it down 5-3, but the city council gave its preliminary approval anyway, 7-1. Last month, developer Elmer Fannin came back for final approval on the 240-unit first phase, and the commission looked like it would vote no again, deadlocking 4-4 before voting to table the issue for a month.

But they got a surprise – instead of showing the same plans as last month, Fannin revised the drawings to include sidewalks on the major roads, more parking spaces and a five-acre space that used to be “reserved for future development” now marked as open space.

“I came tonight prepared to vote no,” commissioner John Kramlich said. “But they came part of the way, so I will come part of the way and vote yes.”

Even with the changes, the project will need waivers to be legal – it is under the city’s minimums for parking and open space, and since it was first submitted before the council required sidewalks in all new developments, it does not meet that requirement either. The version approved by the council in 2006 shared those issues.

“I said it last month – a man’s word is a man’s word,” commissioner Marvin Sharp said. “I’m convinced that they’ve met their commitments.”

This time, it passed the commission comfortably, 6-1. Kramlich, Chairman Brendon Warfel, Marvin Sharp, Karen McColley, Jason James and Chuck Rini voted for it, Kim Hoey-Stevenson voted against and Dirk Gleysteen was absent.

“I haven’t had a chance to check this new plan out, and I voted no the last time,” Stevenson said.

The city council will hold a public hearing on the development in a meeting beginning at 7 p.m. on Nov. 24.

Next on the agenda was the Milford School District, which presented a final site plan – including new architectural renderings – for the planned 8th and 9th grade Central Academy, located on the Milford High School grounds.

The commissioners had no objection to the site plan the school presented, but a debate sprung up over the academy’s proximity to a gas station.

Sharp referred to the controversy that emerged in September and October over a Royal Farms convenience store and gas station that was approved to build across 10th Street from the eastern end of the school. The council eventually ruled that the law only prevented a service station – not a simple set of gas pumps – from building near a school.

But if zoning laws prevent a service station from going up near MHS, Sharp said, shouldn’t the law also prevent a school from building near a service station – in this case, the Valero that borders the high school on Rehoboth Boulevard?

Rini said he did not think putting a gas station near a school posed an inherent safety hazard. He said that since the council vote, he has driven around Delaware and other mid-Atlantic states, and found schools next door to gas stations in most of them.

“I feel strongly that there must be enough safety factors in this,” he said. “Either the whole country has dropped the ball, or there are enough safety factors built in.”

Members of the audience noted that the gas station was built decades before Milford High School, and both were there long before the city approved its current zoning code in the 1980s, meaning that the arrangement was likely “grandfathered” into acceptance.

The academy got its approval by a 6-1 vote, with Sharp voting no because, he said, he was still “confused” about how the law applies to the new construction.

Finally, the commission approved, 6-0, the final site plan for an addition and facelift to the Riverwalk Shopping Center, located on Northeast Front Street. The project will add a 4,000-square-foot building pad to the project, along with extensive landscaping and new parking in the existing lot.

“It certainly can’t be worse than the parking lot that’s there now,” Stevenson said.

Sharp abstained from that vote because he works on the Riverwalk premises.