Planning Gives Thumbs Down to Calvary Day School

Citing concerns about due process, licensing, and enforcement of special conditions, the Fredericksburg Planning Commission has recommended the denial of a special use permit to operate a school for the mentally and emotionally disabled at Calvary Christian Center. The vote was 6-1 with planning commissioner Ed Whelan voting against the motion to recommend denial.

Staff with the city Department of Planning and Community Development had originally recommended that the Planning Commission approve Calvary's special use permit. raised alarms with city officials. A memo dated Aug. 25 reversed the previous staff opinion and recommended denial of the application. Their concerns centered on wether or not it would be feasible to enforce a list of special conditions on the day school to help ease minds of city leaders on a variety of topics related to the operation of the school. 

"Simple inquiries by City Council members, made in an open session of the governing body, were met with heated outbursts, attacks, obfuscation and plain refusals by the applicant," reads the memo. "If reviewing the proposed conditions with the applicant is this difficult in a public meeting, by members of the governing body, at the application stage, then how much more difficult will it be for administrators to enforce these conditions after the permit is granted."

Those sentiments were echoed by Planning Commissioner Sean Lawrence. 

"The applicant has refused to answer the basic questions asked of them," wrote Lawrence. "I am left confused as to which direction they plan on going…I don't believe I can support this SUP."

In his dissenting vote, Whelan said that the Planning Commission may have overstepped its bounds by focusing on licensing issues.

"From a planning perspective, it's a good use of a building," said Whelan. "I had some concerns and issues about the licensing, but I felt that was DSS's responsibility to determine if the licensing was in order, that wouldn't be our commission as a planning commission, where we answer to zoning and a comprehensive plan."

Calvary Christian Center is suing the city of Fredericksburg, saying that it unfairly discriminated against the church in the denial last year of a similar permit to operate a day school. Pastor Michael Hirsch of Calvary Christian Center has said his church would drop the lawsuit if the new special use permit was granted. Earlier today, attorneys for the city of Fredericksburg and Calvary Christian Center met before a federal judge in Richmond in a hearing where city attorneys sought to have the lawsuit dismissed. The judge said that he would hold his judgement until after the new special use permit had been voted on by the City Council at its next meeting. 

It also does not specify who will operate the school, saying only that it will serve 12 students with individual education plans from regional school districts, down from 18 in the original application, between the ages of eight and 15. 

The measure now goes back before the City Council, which last week tabled a public hearing on the matter to await the recommendation of the Planning Commission. The City Council can override the recommendation of the Planning commission if the votes are there. 

"We look forward to the meeting of City Council on the 13th, because now they have their recommendation, they may go forward with their vote," said Hirsch following the meeting, choosing his words carefully. "That's the most positive light I can put it in."