Work is expected to begin early next year on an expansion that will almost double the size of the Hampton Inn on Mc-Knight Road in Ross.

The project will add a four-story addition containing 46 rooms to the 61-room hotel. Plans also show an outdoor swimming pool and an exercise room.

Township commissioners reapproved site plans and granted a conditional use to allow additional parking for the hotel at 4575 McKnight Road. The conditional use was needed because the tract proposed for parking includes sections zoned for commercial and R-2 residential use.

Municipal officials approved the hotel plans in September 2005, but because work on the project hadn't begun within one year, Hampton Inn had to seek new approvals.

The planning commissioner had recommended approval of both requests.

In another matter, the commissioners delayed action until Monday on a request from Jeff Gonano for site plan approval for an office building at 410 Bellevue Road.

While the property is zoned for C-3 commercial use, it is close to houses. Commissioner David Mikec said postponing action would give him time to inform residents about what was proposed in their neighborhood.

The exterior of the two-story office building would be masonry and metal.

Also at the board's Oct. 8 meeting, Commissioner Daniel DeMarco reported that civil service testing had been completed for candidates interested in becoming Ross police officers.

The department is looking to fill three vacancies on its 43-member roster.

New officers could be hired by late November, Mr. DeMarco said.

The commissioners earlier approved a one-year extension of the rent-free lease for a police substation at Ross Park Mall.

The office opened in February in an area of the mall not usually visited by the public. The 1,200-square-foot substation is used for interviews, investigations and bookings. It has no holding cells.

The office was established in response to increased crime at the mall or in nearby neighborhoods, police and mall officials have said. The substation allows police to question suspects or crime victims more quickly and efficiently because officers don't have to take them to the Ross municipal building, about three miles away. No police are assigned full time to the mall office.

Also at an earlier meeting, David Winter told the board that overgrown trees and shrubs remain a hazard at Sixth Avenue and Seventh Street in the Laurel Gardens neighborhood.

Mr. Winter, who lives on Ninth Avenue, has come to board meetings four times to complain about what he describes as a hazard for motorists and pedestrians.

In the summer, he brought several photographs of the intersection to show commissioners. The uncut vegetation makes it almost impossible for motorists on Sixth Avenue to see cars coming up Seventh Street, he said.

Traffic Officer Howard Boyd is to study the intersection and make a recommendation to commissioners.