A Rush Township business hopes to get a variance which will allow it to bottle and sell wine in Hometown.

Seitz Brothers Property Holdings, which presently operates a pest control and mold remediation company from a location on Claremont Avenue (SR309), Tamaqua, purchased the former Draper & Yost plumbing supply property at 1101 Hunter St. in Hometown earlier this year.Seitz seeks a variance to allow the Blue Lizard Vineyard & Winery LLC, to ferment, age, process, bottle, store and sell wine at the Hometown property. The Blue Lizard Vineyard is located on Ash Circle, Andreas.The request will be heard by the Rush Township Zoning Hearing Board at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Rush Township Municipal Building.Seitz's Hometown property, which also has frontage on Ryan Avenue and Chestnut Street, includes a garage and separate office building, which has a second-floor apartment. Seitz is proposing a mixed use of the property, with the Blue Lizard Vineyard operations conducted in the office building.According to the application the office building would be remodeled to house a retail store; fermenting and wine aging room; and processing, bottling and storage room.Brian Seitz, who tendered the application, said that the fledgling Blue Lizard Vineyard was named for its location, "at the foot of the Blue Mountains, adjacent to Lizard Creek" in Andreas. He said that the vineyard is newly-established, and will not be producing a crop for about three to five years.In the meantime, he said, he'd like to make sure that bottling and selling wine will be an approved use of the Hometown property.