THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503100197
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Another View
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
In the interest of your readers having as complete information as possible, I would like to offer a different perspective on Ida Kay Jordan's column ``The gumption to change minds'' (Currents, March 5).
There is support in Cradock for our use permit application to use 53 Afton Parkway as a place for our church to meet:
Our application has been endorsed by the Cradock Clergy Association.
Our application has the support of Dr. David Denny, pastor of Cradock Baptist; the Rev. James Dorson, past of Holy Angels Catholic; and the Rev. George Close, pastor of Cradock United Methodist.
Our application has been endorsed by the Cradock Property Owners Association by 26-6 vote.
One of the six association members who voted against our application and spoke at the Feb. 28 public hearing was quoted in Ida Kay Jordan's column as saying the vote was ``manipulated'' and ``carefully orchestrated.'' The membership forms used, and the freedom of residents to join the association either to support or oppose our application, were cleared with the association president, Bob Grey, prior to the meeting.
The members of our church gathered more than 600 signatures in support of our application. Most of these signatures were from people who live within blocks of 53 Afton Parkway.
Jordan also quoted a Cradock resident who spoke at the public hearing as saying ``This is a storefront church, no matter how you mask it.'' We disagree. From our perspective, a storefront church has four main characteristics:
A lack of business activity;
A predominance of church activity;
Changes in commercial appearance, such as signs, that clearly proclaim the building a church;
The removal or attempt to remove the building from tax rolls.
From our perspective, none of these four characteristics of a storefront church can be found in our proposed use of 53 Afton Parkway.
Condition No. 2 of the permit states ``Servant Industries Inc. is the primary user of the building. Should the applicant decide to make the church the primary or sole user, the use permit shall be revoked.''
Condition No. 6 states ``Alterations to the outside of the building and property (that) will change the commercial appearance of the property shall not be permitted.''
We are happy to comply with these conditions. From our perspective, these conditions guarantee the city that our use permit will only be valid if we do with that building what we say we intend to do.
Here's what we intend to do with this building:
Move the offices of my wholesale service business there;
Renovate the building and make the necessary changes and investment to open a retail business there, the New Creation Family Fitness Center;
As a strictly secondary use, allow our church to gather there on the weekend, when the businesses are closed.
From our perspective, if we don't do what we say we are going to do, we will not have a valid permit for our church to meet there.
David Alexander
Pastor
Abundant Life Church
1 Afton Parkway
March 8 MEMO: Editor's note: In conversation with Mr. Alexander on March 9, he
acknowledges:
The business license sticker issued for 1 Afton Parkway had been
prematurely displayed at 53 Afton Parkway prior to the March 6
re-inspection.
A business sign posted in front of 53 Afton Parkway violated
regulations in that it had not been approved by the Commission of
Architectural Review. Made aware of the violation, Alexander said he
immediately removed it.
The afternoon of the Feb. 28 public hearing, Mr. Alexander appeared
before the Commission of Architectural Review to request permission to
place a sign at 53 Afton Parkway for the fitness center and place a sign
at 75 Afton Parkway for a church office. He was granted temporary
permission for a family fitness center sign but said he does not plan to
erect the sign until passing the commercial re-inspection, which is
under way. He also was granted temporary permission to erect a sign at
75 Afton Parkway.
by CNB