Pittston, Pa., Residents Lobby for Stricter Zoning Ordinances. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Donna Thomas, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jul. 13--PITTSTON TWP., Pa.--Even though a developer has halted plans to build a truck stop near the Butler Heights housing development, residents want to make sure a truck stop never can be built there.

About 35 families have formed a homeowners association to lobby the township to amend the zoning ordinance to ensure a truck stop is not built at the edge of their development.

'Diesel fuel is being researched as a carcinogen,' said Joseph Aliciene Jr., a member of the Butler Heights Homeowners Association. 'We don't care if anything goes in there that is listed in the zoning code.

'But they were trying to go outside the scope of the zoning law by coming in as a gasoline station,' he said of the business that wanted to build a truck stop there.

Truck stops are not defined under highway business district or industrial districts. The association wants them defined and then permitted in only industrial districts.

A Pilot Travel Center is located in an industrial district -- on the side of state Route 315 where there are no houses.

At some spots, homes are less than 100 feet away from the land where the truck stop was planned, Aliciene says.

The Butler Heights Homeowners Association presented a letter to the Pittston Township Board of Supervisors in June, asking for the board to pass a resolution to amend the zoning ordinance to include truck stops in industrial districts.

The undeveloped site is now zoned a highway business district and allows for gas stations, hotels and other retail operations.

Association members don't mind a gas station or another hotel, Aliciene said. Nor are they oblivious to the fact that their homes border one of the last pieces of developable land lining busy state Route 315.

Property owner Victoria Popple, who owns Victoria Inns and Suites, could not be reached.

'There is a provision in the 1995 zoning law for an amendment,' said Aliciene. 'But we're not getting any help.'

Township Supervisor Anthony Attardo said he turned the letter over to the township solicitor for review. He hopes to have an idea how to proceed by Monday's board meeting.

Aliciene said about 10 residents have called supervisors and Solicitor Sean McDonough since the June 6 letter was distributed to supervisors. No one received a call back from township officials, he said.

McDonough said the residents have to apply formally for an amendment before the township can respond to the request. He compared the situation in which a property owner who wants a zoning change on his or her parcel has to file formal applications with the township.

'We went to them and asked them how to do this. They didn't tell us that,' Aliciene said referring to filing formal papers.

Adrian Merolli, executive director of the Luzerne County Planning Commission, said that's not the typical process. Most residents usually don't learn of a project before the permitting process.

The resident group's letter is a formal request to the board to pass a resolution amending the 1995 zoning ordinance to define a truck stop. They call the lack of definition an oversight in the original law.

The letter also says action by the board would eliminate the need for residents to spend their own money to take the issue to court.

But, McDonough believes the township has no responsibility to residents -- nor to business owners -- in explaining how to get a zoning change or amendment.

'Do you understand the obvious problem that the township supervisors are facing?' McDonough asked. 'The board's unwillingness to walk (residents) through the process is because, for them, this is a no-win situation.'

Donna Thomas, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 829-7222.

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(c) 2001, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.