North Tonawanda residents didn’t pull any punches at a public hearing Tuesday night as they beat to a pulp plans by an Orchard Park faith organization to create housing for homeless youth and veterans on Payne Avenue.

The Common Council scheduled the hearing to consider rezoning the former St. Joe’s church at 1451 Payne Ave., after the question was forwarded by members of the Planning Commission.

What they got was well over a hundred residents who turned up and expressed everything from terror to shock and disgust at the ideas the Home Society is proposing for the property, which is still owned by the Buffalo Catholic Diocese.

The group first presented its plans Sept. 6.

The project would be broken into five operations: Six to 12 bedrooms for homeless youth in the rectory, 10 more in the convent, 17 veterans apartments in the school, eight mixed-use apartments and community center in the church and possibly a spattering of market rate apartments that could be taxable, but not before the year 2013.

The project would, if approved, take about three years to complete, with work nearing fruition in two phases.

But after Tuesday’s hearing, it’s not likely city leaders are convinced the plans are popular enough to warrant a zoning change, especially, said Councilman Brett Sommer, since the not-for-profit group’s project would contribute little or no money to the city’s tax base.

“I don’t think we need more people who don’t pay taxes,” Sommer said, adding he has never really liked the idea. “I wasn’t in favor of it in the first place, so there wasn’t much there that would change my mind.”

Sommer said he has always been in favor of converting past not-for-profit lands into businesses that could help share the city’s mostly residential tax base.

Of greater concern to him, enough that he’s seeking a legal opinion from City Attorney Shawn Nickerson, is whether or not rejecting the zoning change request based on their opinion of the project, would open the city to legal liability.

“Ultimately it’s a zoning issue ... if we want to rezone to accommodate this type of business there,” he said. “We need to be very careful about voting the zoning issue down and getting ourselves embroiled in a lawsuit because we’re not making the decision for the right reasons.”

Nickerson could not be reached late Wednesday for his opinion.

First-Ward Alderman Dennis Pasiak, whose constituents live closest to the former church, said he wasn’t surprised to hear that veterans housing components of the Home Society’s plans weren’t what bothered most residents who spoke out against the proposal.

Nevertheless, he said even many veterans he spoken to say simply putting up homeless veterans doesn’t get at the root causes of their condition. To wit, problems like mental illness, drug or alcohol dependencies and the like.

Then, on the subject of housing the teens and young adults, Pasiak said he won’t vote for a plan that includes that aspect.

“I want to be fair to the United Church Home Society,” he said, adding he will be calling the group to discuss any possible amendments to their development proposal. “If they have a problem amending it I’m going to have a hard time supporting it,” he said. “I think having the boys and girls is a lost cause at this point.”

Council members Nancy Donovan, Catherine Schwandt and Kevin Brick could not be reached Wednesday afternoon.

“Of course we were warned — that if I vote for this I can kiss my election good bye,” Pasiak added regarding comments made at the hearing by the proposed project’s opponents. “But if I vote, I want it to be based on facts.”

He concluded by saying while he wants to be fair to the Home Society’s true intentions, he will not vote in favor of the proposal as it stands.

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.