Saturday, October 23, 1999
Church will fight for teen home
BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MONROE — Solid Rock Church is standing firm in its determination to build a home for pregnant, unwed teen-
agers on its property here, but whether it will be on the site of choice is still under debate.
The church has filed an appeal in the 12th District Court of Appeals, seeking to have a ruling last month by Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Keith M. Spaeth be overturned, church attorney C. Francis Barrett said this week.
“The church will await a decision from the court before deciding how to proceed,” said Mr. Barrett.
Church officials say the Darlene Bishop home will be built somewhere on church property, but the best and most economical location is near the existing sanctuary and the family center. The city has denied a zoning certificate for that site.
Monroe City Manager Don Whitman said he is optimistic the appeals court will uphold the city's decision.
“I think the city has made the correct choice, and that was born out by the judge's decision,” said City Manager Don Whitman. “We'll just see what happens at the next step.”
Goal thwarted
Solid Rock, a nondenominational church on Union Road in the Warren County section of Monroe, initially announced its plans for the home in May 1998. The goal was to start the $1 million, 16,000 square-foot Darlene Bishop home for 30 pregnant teens that summer.
The nonprofit home is a dream of Darlene Bishop, wife of Pastor Lawrence Bishop. It would accept girls from all over the country, help them keep their babies and teach them to be self-sufficient.
In a brief to be filed after a scheduling order is issued, Mr. Barrett said he will argue that Solid Rock should be able to proceed with the site near the church.
“It will be based on the grounds that the original conditional-use zoning certificate issued by the city of Monroe in 1985 for the church to use all 60 of its acres for church purposes, allows the proposed home for unwed pregnant teen-agers because that is part of the church's ministry,” Mr. Barrett said.
City officials say the home is not a church, that the 1985 zoning certificate did not provide for the home and that the Monroe Board of Zoning Appeals has the discretion to interpret their code and deny the use.
Worry about value
After word got out about the church's plans to build the home south of the church, controversy erupted. Church neighbors Jay and Helen Frick objected to the plans, saying it could harm the marketing of their property, including Traders World flea market and Cincinnati Zoysia Inc. sod farm.
After several attempts for approval to build the home, including calling it a motel, the church filed an application with the city Dec. 10, 1998, asking to build on its land zoned heavy industrial, using the 1985 conditional-use permit. In January, Jay Stewart, city zoning enforcement officer, denied the application. The city Board of Zoning Appeals upheld that decision in February, and the church appealed to common pleas court.
In September, Judge Spaeth ruled in favor of the city.
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