A Nesquehoning man who is proposing operating a limited winery from his home will have to wait a little longer before he will know if he can do so.

On Tuesday evening, the Nesquehoning Zoning Hearing Board continued the hearing on Jacob Arner's request for a variance to his home at 140 E. Center St., a 9,000-square-foot building that was a former car dealership and then clothing mill, to allow him and his wife to produce approximately 3,000 gallons of wine in the home to sell at their vineyard on Flagstaff Mountain in Jim Thorpe. Their home is zoned R-2 residential.Arner, who has a certificate of wine making from Northampton Community College, explained a limited winery allows a person to manufacture more wine than permitted in a residence, but noted that he has no intention of doing wine tasting or retail from the home. The couple already produces wine at the home for personal consumption.He explained how the operation would work is that the grapes would be grown and harvested from the vineyard in Jim Thorpe and the grape juice would be trucked to his home once or twice a month at most. It would then be put into the 10 250-gallon vats and fermented into wine.Arner told the board that there would be no noise heard outside the building as the process does not require much machinery except for bottling and corking the wine; and would produce no noxious fumes.The board discussed his proposal and verified that he would not be running a retail business from the home, which he said he would not, but added if he received the zoning variance and was licensed by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, which he has already applied to, he could sell his wine at up to five locations and would be permitted to do private sales from his home, meaning someone calls and asks to buy a bottle and he can sell it there.The board also asked about an additional lot on the application, located directly across the street from the Arner residence.He said the lot would be used for parking by two employees that he anticipates eventually adding once operations pick up.One area resident, Sandy Gazdick, who lives behind the Arner residence, raised a number of concerns, adding that she doesn't trust it will not turn into a retail business."I'm not looking to disturb any of my neighbors," Arner said.Another resident, Fred Bartelt, who also lives behind the Arner residence, supported Arner, saying he has been nothing but truthful in the nearly three decades he knew him.Following testimony, the zoning hearing board decided to continue the hearing because it felt Arner's request should be for a special exception, which must first go before the Nesquehoning Planning Commission.Arner must now go before the planning commission and once a ruling is made, will be sent back to the zoning hearing board for another public hearing.