West Mahanoy zoners deny Dollar General developer’s variance request
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The lot where LGN Management is seeking a variance to build a Dollar General store in the Altamont section of West Mahanoy Township.
SHENANDOAH HEIGHTS – West Mahanoy Township’s zoning hearing board denied a Williamsport developer’s request for a zoning variance that would’ve allowed them to build a Dollar General near the Speedway in the Altamont section.
The board reconvened their hearing at the municipal building in Shenandoah Heights, continued from April 7, and rendered their decision.
Attending the meeting were board members Charles Lawson and William Grutza, solicitor Robert Matta, neighbor Lucia Salamak, and her counsel, Emeline Diener. No one representing the developer, LGN Development, of Williamsport, attended Wednesday’s meeting.
LGN, on behalf of Theodore Kaliher, Theodore Kaliher Jr., Christine Gregory, and Angela Chuplis, owners of 620 South Lehigh Avenue, requested a zoning variance to allow a commercial use at 620, namely a Dollar General store. In addition, the developer requested relief regarding driveway access and signage.
Currently, a single-family home is on the 620 South Lehigh lot, and, according to testimony presented in April, it is occupied.
The variance request was denied, and the relief requests were deemed moot as a result, Matta said.
“No commercial enterprise will go in there,” Matta said. “They failed to meet that burden of proof. In my personal opinion, that neighborhood is a neighborhood… all residential neighbors were present and they testified credibly that that neighborhood is quiet, it’s peaceful. In this instance, if a Dollar General store were to go into that neighborhood, I believe it would really change the character of that neighborhood.”
“[LGN’s] best claim was related to the fact that there were some commercial properties around you folks,” Matta said directed at Salamak, “and that isn’t enough to allow such a variance.”
According to the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law prepared by the board, the developers must show “conditions of the lot which create unnecessary hardship, and because of the physical circumstances there is no possibility or conditions that the property can be developed in strict conformity with the Ordinance, and the variance is necessary to enable reasonable use of the property.”
The document notes that several reasonable uses exist that would conform with the zoning law, including apartments.
Additionally, the board concluded that the store would greatly change the character of the neighborhood.
LGN can appeal the decision to the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas.
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