Look for a new Dunkin’ Donuts along Lehigh Street in Salisbury Township.

The township board of commissioners voted 4-0, with one commissioner absent, to approve the preliminary-final plan for a Dunkin’ Donuts store at 3311 Lehigh St.

The new store is expected to replace an existing store at 3039 Lehigh St. (31st and Lehigh streets), Allentown.

The new approximate 2,000-square foot facility, with some area for sit-down patrons, will have drive-thru access, which the existing store does not.

“That building [31st and Lehigh] doesn’t have a drive-thru. We feel this will improve the traffic,” Brian E. Gasda, P.E., senior project engineer, Lehigh Engineering Associates, Inc., representing the developer, Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc., which is to build and own the new facility, told commissioners.

“Dunkin’ does more than half of its business through drive-thru,” Gasda said.

Gasda said the timetable for start of construction of the new Dunkin’ Donuts, its completion and opening date is to be determined.

There will be about two weeks “of downtime,” according to Gasda, between the closing of the existing Dunkin’ Donuts and the opening of the new Dunkin’ Donuts.

Approval of the Dunkin’ Donuts by commissioners was recommended by the township planning commission by a 4-0 vote at its Sept. 13 meeting.

At that meeting, township planners also voted 4-0 to recommend commissioners request Pennsylvania Department of Transportation undertake a pedestrian safety study of Lehigh Street between 31st Street and 33rd Street and in the vicinity of the Dunkin’ Donuts.

However, at the Oct. 27 meeting when commissioners approved the Dunkin’ Donuts’ plan, the board did not approve the planners’ recommendation to request the PennDOT study.

Township commissioners’ approval of the Dunkin’ Donuts’ plan includes a deferral for sidewalk construction, also recommended by planners, in front of Dunkin’ Donuts. A sidewalk deferral has been granted as part of the Kost Tire & Auto Service store approval, adjacent to the west of the Dunkin’ Donuts’ site. There is a sidewalk along Lehigh Street in front of a used car lot adjacent to the east of Dunkin’ Donuts’ site.

David J. Tettemer, township consulting engineer, of Keystone Consulting Engineers, Inc., said at the Sept. 13 planners’ meeting he had no engineering objection to the sidewalk deferral.

Regarding the deferral, Tettemer told planners, “At any time, they [the township board of commissioners] can go back to Dunkin’ Donuts and ask them to put in a sidewalk. You may not want to encourage people to walk there [to Dunkin’ Donuts].”

As part of the approval, commissioners approved a deferral for placement of four street trees along the front of the property. Six other new trees are shown on the plan. Township planners had also approved this deferral.

Gasda said the company could donate four trees for use at another location in the township in lieu of the four street trees.

The new site will have four more parking spaces than required. There will be 16 parking spaces, with 12 required.

There will be stacking (cars in line for the drive-thru) for 12 and possibly 13 vehicles, Gasda said.

“We’re actually reducing the coverage of impervious surfaces,” Gasda told commissioners. Stormwater runoff will be directed to the back or south of the lot and to the PennDOT storm sewer system along Lehigh Street.

The township fire inspector’s Aug. 30 letter urged ensuring access lanes are wide enough for firefighting and emergency equipment, that access be provided on both sides of the building, that building overhangs be limited, that a right-turn-only sign be placed at the exit and that a fire alarm system and rapid-entry Knox Box be installed.

A meeting held in February with PennDOT officials determined a “No Left Turn” sign is to be placed at the Dunkin’ Donuts exit onto Lehigh Street.

Township zoners voted 4-0 at the Dec. 1, 2015, hearing to grant a special exception use and two variances for Dunkin’ Donuts.

A special exception for the Dunkin’ Donuts’ facility was required because it is a fast-food restaurant in a C-3 Zoning District.

A variance was required for the size of the Dunkin’ Donuts’ facility because the lot size is 19,479.39-square-feet when a minimum 20,000-square-feet is required.

Township planners reviewed the sketch plan for Sept. 8 and Oct. 13.

The site is the former location of Jiffy Lube.