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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A city Zoning Hearing Board majority on Wednesday sided with East End residents who opposed the proposed conversion of a church into a sheet metal assembly and/or fabrication business.</p><p>The board voted 4-1 to deny Peter L. Dragon III&#8217;s application for a use variance for the former Holy Saviour Church at 56 Hillard St. A warehousing and distribution use also was included in the application. The property is in a residential zone. Dragon can appeal the ruling to Luzerne County Court.</p><p>Dragon testified air hammer use in the assembly of sheet metal products would cause noise, but he would do &#8220;whatever is necessary&#8221; to abate it so neighbors wouldn&#8217;t be disturbed. He estimated one to four tractor trailer deliveries per month, and two to 10 smaller trucks per week. Propane-powered fork lifts also would be used.</p><p>Several residents asked Dragon questions and offered testimony, the most impassioned of which came from Aleta Payne, who lives about 200 feet from the church building.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t care if it&#8217;s quiet as a mouse over there, you&#8217;re still turning a residential neighborhood into an industrial park, because that&#8217;s what it amounts to when you allow any kind of machine shop, any kind of sheet metal shop into a residential area,&#8221; Payne said.</p><p>&#8220;I <em>am</em> going to hear the trucks, I <em>am</em> going to hear the fork lifts, I <em>am</em> going to hear the noise no matter what he says. &#8230; I am very upset and very frustrated because my property values are going to hit the &#8230; toilet. Who is going to buy my house living next to this? Nobody,&#8221; she said.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve lived my whole life in my house and now if I go outside, I can hear the birds sing, I can hear the &#8230; bees humming. That is gone for us, gone for our whole neighborhood. It&#8217;s gone if this goes in there, and it&#8217;s not fair, it&#8217;s not fair for anybody,&#8221; Payne said.</p><p>Payne said her neighbors who packed the hearing room &#8220;forced themselves to come here because they don&#8217;t want their neighborhood to change either. It&#8217;s going to break their hearts. Second-, third-generation people living in these homes built in the 1900s, and we&#8217;re going to destroy that because he decides to go and buy a church and change it?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s all kinds of industrial buildings around here; there&#8217;s empty stuff everywhere. Why our street? Why disturb our neighborhood? I have to be emotional about it because this is the end of my happy home; it&#8217;s the end of it forever if this happens,&#8221; she said.</p><p>The board heard 11 cases Wednesday, and attendees were pouring into the hall. The zoning officer called attendees into the hearing room for cases they were interested in hearing. At least half of those present were there for the Dragon cases.</p><p><ins>In some of the more controversial cases, the board:</ins></p><p><ins>&#8226; Approved Dragon&#8217;s request for a variance to convert the Holy Savior rectory into four apartments and continued a hearing on his request for a variance to convert the parish school into an office building.</ins></p><p><ins>&#8226; Approved Wilkes-Barre General Hospital&#8217;s special exception request to construct three additional floors and a heli-pad atop an existing three-story hospital structure with related setback and height variances.</ins></p><p><ins>&#8226; Approved a request to use the former Turkey Hill store at South Main and Blackman streets as a convenience store and carry-out beer store.</ins></p><p><ins>&#8226; Continued a hearing on an application from Leo A. Glodzik III for a variance to convert a commercial building at Rear 253 New Hancock St. into a second detached residential dwelling on a lot containing a single family home.</ins></p><p><ins>&#8226; Reversed its previous decision to deny an after-the-fact setback variance application for a garage at 180-182 East Thomas Street on owned by Thomas McDonough after hearing additional testimony as ordered by a county judge.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Peter Dragon, seated on right, testifies on Wednesday before the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board about his plan to move part of his sheet metal assembly and fabrication business into the former Holy Saviour Church in the city&#8217;s East End. Behind Dragon are East End residents, left to right, Aleta Payne, Eryn Harvey and Tom Comparetta. On Dragon&#8217;s right is his surveyor, Emmet Burke. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_hearing-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Peter Dragon, seated on right, testifies on Wednesday before the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board about his plan to move part of his sheet metal assembly and fabrication business into the former Holy Saviour Church in the city&#8217;s East End. Behind Dragon are East End residents, left to right, Aleta Payne, Eryn Harvey and Tom Comparetta. On Dragon&#8217;s right is his surveyor, Emmet Burke. </caption0><photoCredit0>Steve Mocarsky | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Steve Mocarsky</p><p>smocarsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>ON THE NET</strong></p><p>Find an extended version of this story at timesleader.com.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Steve Mocarsky at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @TLSteveMocarsky.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre zoning board says no to sheet metal business in former Holy Saviour Church