BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MONROE -- Solid Rock Church leaders are confident God wants them to build a home for unwed, pregnant teen-agers. They're just not sure of his schedule or where it will be built.
Because of squabbling with neighbors and zoning issues, work on the home won't be started until spring or summer -- at the earliest.
And instead of being built in Monroe, the $1 million facility may land in Turtlecreek Township in western Warren County. But a problem at that site may take months to resolve.
On Thursday, after another unproductive meeting before city planning commissioners, the church's financial director said he's uncertain about the project's direction.
"We haven't totally given up on this site," Ron Carter said. "I'm going to meet with our pastor (Lawrence Bishop) and talk to our legal counsel to go over the options."
An obvious one would be to build on a separate 45-acre, church-owned tract near Greentree Road, north of the planned site. The church -- which is in Monroe, but inside the Warren County line -- had other plans for that site. And it would be inconvenient because the girls would have to be transported to the church family center and recreation areas instead of having them right next door.
But the church is willing to consider that alternative if it guarantees the facility's construction.
That would likely end the dispute with church neighbors Jay and Helen Frick, who own Traders World flea market and Cincinnati Zoysia Inc. The couple's lawyer, Peter Koenig, argues the group home should not be allowed in a heavy industrial zoning district. He said the Fricks have always been willing to compromise, "but that precise location is too close to my client's property. All I can tell you with certainty is that it has to be north of the church," he said.
But Ted Priest, Warren County Building and Zoning Department chief zoning official, said the 30-girl group home would not be permitted on the residential site in the township. Planning commissioners are considering changing the zoning code to allow such uses because of several inquiries, but that will take three to five months, he said.
The church has already spent nearly five months and submitted three zone change applications, trying to build the 16,000-square-foot Darlene Bishop Home. The latest proposal calls for zoning the 60 acres surrounding the church highway industrial zoning, with a planned unit development (PUD), and calling the home a "motel." But during a meeting Wednesday, Mr. Koenig said having the home so close to the Fricks' 120 acres would negatively impact all its potential industrial uses. He said Thursday the property is suitable for manufacturing or printing plants, or automobile manufacturers, which could benefit from its proximity to the railroad.
Calling it a motel is "an attempt to cloak a residential use in commercial clothes," Mr. Koenig said.
