A Dollar General Store is coming to Ryan Township along Route 54. During a meeting Monday, the township’s Zoning Hearing Board granted a variance request which will allow that venture to be located on property which has long been home to the Lakeside Ballroom.

The property will be purchased by JLM Real Estate Investments LLC, based in Schuylkill Haven. JLM plans to subdivide the parcel, using 2 acres for the Dollar General and selling the remaining 6.4 acres with the ballroom.

Members of the zoning hearing board — Lori Felding, Lenny Zakrewsky and Ed Blazer — sifted through two options for the property, presented for JLM by attorney Gretchen Coles Sterns. The zoning for the property is residential (R-3) with the operation of a ballroom termed an existing nonconforming use.

Sterns asked the board to consider two options: move the existing nonconforming use to the 2-acre parcel for the Dollar General or grant a variance to allow a commercial business in the R-3 district.

“We wanted to present the board with two options,” Sterns said. “We feel it’s a good fit for the neighborhood: a modern-day, corner store.”

In his testimony before the board, Edward E. Davis of JLM said that the area currently has a mix of commercial and residential properties. He said that the entrance for the property would remain at the current location of the driveway, with the store having parking in front and alongside. He estimated that at peak times, the business might have from 10 to 15 vehicles in the lot, with an average of three to four vehicles at other times.

Hours of operation are typically from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., open every day. Lighting is constructed so that illumination is limited to the actual building and lot, he said.

Township engineer Bill McMullin, Arro Engineering, expressed concern about the future of the 6-acre property which would include the ballroom. He said that if the nonconforming use were “stripped from the ballroom,” that would present challenges for a new owner’s plans to use the property. In response, Sterns acknowledged the board’s concern for the future of the ballroom and pointed out that the Dollar General store would be a “less-intensive commercial use,” especially according to size. The ballroom building is 25,000 square feet; the proposed Dollar General building would be about 9,000 square feet.

On the advice of solicitor Mike Greek, the board adjourned to discuss the information in executive session. When the board reconvened, its members voted unanimously to grant the variance to allow a commercial venture in a residential district. By taking that approach, the ballroom parcel will maintain its existing nonconforming use. In granting the variance, the board added conditions that the land development plan for the project be approved.