Leiby's has received a green light to move forward with its plans, while it's back to the drawing board for Koch's Turkey Farm.

The Walker Township Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday agreed to grant an application to Leiby's Dairy Inc., 116 Mountain Road, Tamaqua.Leiby's was granted a special exception under a section of the ordinance to expand the existing nonconforming use of the property as an ice cream manufacturing plant.The business was also granted a variance from a section of the zoning ordinance to allow for an expansion of the existing nonconforming in excess of 25 percent of the area occupied by the use at the time of the effective date of the zoning ordinance; and a variance from a section of the ordinance to allow for a maximum of 40 percent impervious coverage upon the parent tract.There was no opposition to the plan, according to Dave Horst, township engineer.Founded and opened in 1965, Leiby's closed its doors in 2007.Last year, members of the Leiby family acquired the building and began renovations to reopen the Ice Cream House.While things went smoothly for Leiby's, that wasn't quite the case for LVE Inc., doing business as Koch's Turkey Farm.A commercial turkey packing operation at 416 Valley Road, Tamaqua, the business requested a variance from minimum side yard requirements of a section of the township's zoning ordinance.As part of their proposal, one side yard would have a distance of 40 feet instead of the required 100 feet, and a variance from expansion of nonconforming use requirements of a section of the zoning ordinance. The expansion would exceed 25 percent of the area occupied by this use at the effective date of the ordinance.Additionally, the proposed expansion would violate the side yard requirements of a section of the ordinance, which violates the requirement that any structure added to a nonconforming building must comply with the applicable area regulations of the zoning district.But Horst said there was some question as to if the matter was properly advertised, and what exactly it was they were asking for.After some deliberation, the attorney for Koch's withdrew the application and indicated they would resubmit a new application to the board, he said.Also during the meeting, the zoning board reorganized, at which time it appointed Jamie Passon as board chairman.