THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 17, 1995 TAG: 9503160198
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
On the advice of its attorney, the City Council on Tuesday night decided that minister David Alexander didn't need city permission after all to hold religious services in a Cradock storefront.
City Attorney George M. Wilson recommended that Alexander be allowed to withdraw an application for a use permit, which the council had tentatively voted in February to give him.
Under the law, Wilson said, a church that holds ``incidental'' services in a building primarily used as a business is not required to get city permission.
Alexander said he was willing to withdraw, but wondered why it took so long to figure this out.
``I'm a little flabbergasted that it's taken this much work to get us back around to square one,'' Alexander said.
Alexander wants to hold services for the Abundant Life Church, a denomination of the Seventh-Day Baptists, in a storefront he owns on Afton Square in Cradock. Most of the week, Alexander would run a fitness center and other services in the storefront.
Alexander's plans have put two parts of the community at odds, each resenting and mistrusting the others. The council heard 19 people speak Tuesday night. Some residents said he could not be trusted to keep the church from taking over the business.
``He operates under the concept that it is better to beg forgiveness afterward than to ask permission first,'' said Jeanne Butler. ``It's a church. It's not an incidental meeting.''
But Alexander and his supporters said they plan to hold some of the services and church functions in other locations in Portsmouth and Suffolk.
The council voted unanimously to allow Alexander to withdraw the use permit application. by CNB