MONROE — After years of court battles over zoning issues, the Solid Rock Church's home for pregnant teen-agers is finally taking shape and should have its first residents by year's end.

Construction equipment sits idle because of rain at the Solid Rock Church in Monroe. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        Officials from the Monroe-based church, a massive, 2,000-seat, non-denominational church at 904 North Union Road, say they are happy to finally be constructing the new facility rather than contesting it in court.

        Earlier this year, the Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals overturned a Butler County Common Pleas decision that ruled against the church's earlier appeal of a Monroe zoning law. The law, city officials argued, prohibited building such a facility on land zoned for heavy industrial use. The church had first sought to build the home in 1998.

        Monroe city officials say they never objected to the home other than the zoning issue and plan no further legal action.

        “We won the appeal and the work has begun,” said Ronald Carter, administrator for Solid Rock, which is visible from Interstate 75 just north of the Ohio 63 exit.

        When completed, the residential home will be the first such facility solely devoted to unwed mothers in Butler or Warren counties, said officials from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, which licenses such homes.

        The 16,000-square-foot facility, which is estimated to cost $1 million, will be located on the church's 60-acre campus and will house 30 unwed, pregnant teen-agers — ages 13 to 18 — once opened some time around Christmas. Construction of the home has begun and church officials look forward to the facility helping to fulfill Solid Rock's commitment to helping pregnant girls.

        “The church has preached a life message for many years. Unfortunately, the church has not offered girls, especially girls from lower economic backgrounds, an alternative to abortion,” said Mr. Carter.

        Besides prenatal care, the new home will also include instructional facilities to teach the female residents both career training and life-skills.

        “We will give them a climate to provide for their physical needs and to better prepare them for life,” said Mr. Carter.

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