Charles Dennis, the property owner of 145 Madison St., speaks in front of the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
David Johns of Design BLB, representing the property at 373 Hight St., speaks in front of the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Members of the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board conduct Wednesday’s meeting.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Zoning Officer William Harris addresses an applicant at the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE — Two applicants seeking zoning approval in Wilkes-Barre will have to wait until Oct. 21 to make their cases before the hearing board due to miscommunication between the parties involved.
A third application — Residential Imagineering LLC — was also approved for a continuance, which it had requested prior to the meeting.
That application is requesting a special exception to establish a group residence for six individuals at 334 N. Main Street.
Judy’s Transitional Living Collaborative, an LLC looking to establish a group for eight women at 145 Madison St., and Hertzka Jacobowitz, who wants to establish a 27-unit apartment building at 373 High St., both had their hearings continued on Wednesday because no one representing those applicants showed up to the planning commission meeting that was held earlier in the day.
Charles Dennis, the property owner of 145 Madison St., said he previously informed Zoning Officer William Harris that he couldn’t make the planning commission meeting, and that he believed attendance at that meeting was recommended, not required.
“I’ll just say if it had been known that my attendance was mandatory and it was critical for us to proceed, I absolutely would have did something, or I would have said, ‘Hey, I’m not going to make it this date and said, ‘Let’s make it the 21st.’ So, I thought I was in compliance to do my due diligence so we could have, you know, in effect have a judgment on this hearing. So I guess, you know, I just wasn’t aware of what the process was, and I’ll take more responsibility for that,” he said.
Judith Blankenship, whose name is on the application, was also at the zoning meeting, but did not attend the planning commission meeting.
Blankenship indicated that she did receive written notice of the planning commission meeting.
For the other application, David Johns of Design BLB, representing the property at 373 Hight St., at first said no one attended the planning commission because “we didn’t have notification.”
“Oh, that’s a lie,” Harris responded.
He was adamant that the applicant, Hertzka Jacobowitz, should have received written notice in the mail. He also said that he was “pretty sure” he spoke on the phone with Johns about both meetings.
Johns then said he misunderstood the process and believed he had to appear before the zoning board first, then the planning commission.
“You have to understand — so every township, every city is different. We’re used to going through zoning first,” Johns said.
Both applications will go before the Zoning Hearing Board at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Wilkes-Barre City Council chambers, on the fourth floor of City Hall at 40 E. Market St., Wilkes-Barre.
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