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Wyoming Valley Rescue Mission will appeal rejection of bid to open off Coal Street.
Gene Lavelle tells the city Zoning Hearing Board he opposes the Wyoming Valley Rescue Mission’s plans for Parkview Circle.
Aimee Dilger/THE TIMES LEADER
WILKES-BARRE – The city zoning hearing board, on a 2-2 vote, Wednesday said no to the Wyoming Valley Rescue Mission.
With four of the five sitting members of the board in attendance, the board was split on the application for a zoning variance that would have allowed a 15-resident homeless shelter to open in the former Knights of Columbus building at 290 Parkview Circle, behind Rider’s World on Coal Street.
A tie vote means the request is denied.
The decision can be appealed to Luzerne County Court within 30 days, said Charles McCormick, zoning board solicitor. The matter can then be appealed to state court, he said.
“We have no comment other than to say we feel we met our burden of proof,” said attorney Thomas O’Connor, who represented the mission. “We will begin immediately to institute our appeal.”
O’Connor and the Rev. Phil Schultz, the mission’s executive director, presented their case and were challenged by board member William Breslin and by Gene Lavelle, who lives six blocks from the proposed site.
O’Connor said the term “homeless shelter” is a “misnomer,” because the mission residents are required to go through a year-long program aimed at ridding them of alcohol or drugs dependencies, educating them to at least a high school diploma equivalency and helping them find work.
“These people are homeless in Wilkes-Barre with little direction,” Schultz said. “We want to rehabilitate them and get them back into productive lives through our discipleship program.”
Breslin questioned where the participants would come from. Schultz assured the board the mission does not recruit participants and provides a quality program with 24-hour security.
O’Connor said the manager of nearby Sherman Hills apartment complex is supportive of the program and has offered to use participants to perform maintenance at the facility. O’Connor said the program has received national and state awards and several other people – including a local college professor – supports the mission.
Lavelle said he doesn’t oppose helping people, but he objected to the proposed location. He said it is too close to Coal Street Park and schools, and nearby bars make tempting venues for participants.
Lavelle urged the mission to find another location.
“I guarantee you that it will just be a matter of time before someone will come in there and hurt somebody,” Lavelle said. “It’s already a bad neighborhood and you want to bring more bad elements in there. That’s just wrong.”
Board chairman Richard Chukonis was absent.
In another matter, the board unanimously approved a request of Carmen Capitano of Jenkins Township to establish an automobile repair business in the former Northampton Street fire station. Capitano purchased the 2,300-square-foot building that sits in a residential zone from the city for $20,000.