Cape food fight draws lawyers

A fight between a church and its neighbors that is now before city officials has attracted the attention of a Texas law firm.

Christ Church of the Heartland pastor Zack Strong wants the Cape Girardeau City Council to endorse the church's grocery sales at its meeting Monday.

Mayor Jay Knudtson will likely support the church's bid. Whether the issue is strictly about zoning or another episode in a long-standing feud between the church and its neighbors, Knudtson wants to avoid a court battle.

On Friday, he and other city officials received a copy of a letter sent to Strong by the Texas-based law firm Anthony and Middlebrook, which represents the Georgia-based Angel Food Ministries. Strong delivered the letter.

In addition to citing several Missouri court cases as justification for the church's pursuit of the special-use permit, the firm extended an offer to represent Christ Church of the Heartland. While Strong said he has not yet hired the firm, the letter's advice was clear.

"One of your jobs may be to help the city officials to become more concerned about subjecting the city to a costly, presumably highly visible court fight, which they would ultimately lose. ... we would love to take on this highly favorable" case and establish a legal precedent, said the letter, which was signed by Robert W. Rucker, a lawyer with the firm.

The church, at 720 Bertling St., takes orders for low-cost groceries through Angel Food Ministries each month. Once a month, the food is delivered to the church parking lot and distributed. A box of food that could last a family of four for a week costs $25. For an addition $18, customers can add four pounds of steak or five prepackaged meals. An unlimited number of boxes can be ordered by a single household. The program is open to people of all incomes.

Neighbors have complained about traffic and noise on grocery days.

It's not the first time Angel Food Ministries has caused a zoning issue. In 2006, a Howard, Pa., church was required to get a special-use permit to run the program in its neighborhood.

On Oct. 10, Christ Church's request for a special-use permit was unanimously denied by the planning and zoning commission, based on use of the word "retail" on Angel Food Ministries Web site.

"The ministry is a very, very good ministry. The location is probably not the best," said Charlie Haubold, the commission's chairman.

The city council has rejected a unanimous recommendation "a handful of times" in his 20 years on the planning and zoning board, Haubold said.

Christ Church has been feuding with residents for more than a year. The church's ambitious expansion project, started in 2006, is adding 72,000 square feet to the original building, enough to hold 2,000 people. The construction has elicited complaints from neighbors over noise, traffic, dust and problems with drainage.

Sylvan Lane resident John Cook said he'll be at Monday's public hearing. He maintains the unlimited grocery service exceeds the scope of a charity.

"It is a retail sales operation, and they happily sell to anyone," he said, adding that the fight is not "an attack on the poor oppressed Christian majority in the United States. This has to do with zoning. This has to do with retail sales in a residential neighborhood."

Knudtson disagrees.

"This is not about a simple zoning amendment," he said.

Some people, he said, "will make this a black and white issue and say you have to remove the emotion. This is, in their eyes, a retail operation and a violation of the zoning," he said. "We can't always make things black and white."

Ward 4 councilwoman Loretta Schneider said she had spoken to other members of the council but not the mayor about the church's request. She toured the church with Strong on Thursday.

Schneider, who said she'll support the sales, was already familiar with the grocery program and ordered the food once.

Angel Food Ministries, she said, "is not the kind of retail as we normally define it."

Council members Charlie Herbst and Marcia Ritter will not be at Monday's meeting because they will be out of town. Calls to council members John Voss, Matt Hopkins and Debra Tracy were not returned.

Knudtson said the church's approach to expansion is the root cause of its current troubles.

"From the beginning they were very sure of themselves and their right to expand," he said, adding that, despite some of those rights, "the church could have certainly handled communications with the surrounding neighbors better."

Knudtson said he hopes Monday's meeting can "begin a healing process," though he acknowledged that the acrimony between the church and its neighbors may not subside any time soon.

Cook, echoing the sentiments of some but not all the people on his street, said the church has been a "bad neighbor," clear-cutting of the land "with absolute disregard for the Biblical command that we be stewards of the Earth" and he believes the church "intends to run a number of businesses" on its site.

"We just don't want a mall in our neighborhood," Cook said.

Strong said despite multiple offers to distribute the groceries elsewhere, the program will remain on Bertling Street because "our church is the one spearheading this and our volunteers are from our church."

He said that in October, his church distributed 900 orders of food, including bulk orders from churches in Dexter, Advance and Old St. Vincent in Cape Gir?ardeau.

On Monday, Strong said he expects to present figures during the public hearing to show what "we're doing financially with Angel Food. We'll show you we don't make money on this."

He said the complaints and attention surrounding the issue are "very much oppressive to us. I feel like it's really ridiculous and distracting that we have to take time and energy from the things we do."

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

The issue and the players

Main issue: Whether a Cape Girardeau church may have a special-use permit to sell low-cost groceries from its 720 Bertling St. address, which is in a residential zone.

The sides:

• The church: Christ Church of the Heartland is a regional distributor for the food, a ministry that dates back four years.
• The neighbors: Their complaints about retail-style grocery sales are part of an ongoing feud over traffic and noise at the church.
• The planning and zoning commission: On Oct. 10, the board unanimously denied the church's special-use permit request to continue selling groceries, while praising the food program and suggesting it be moved to a commercial zone.
• The city council and mayor: Have the option of overriding planning and zoning's recommendation. The church has received an offer of representation by a Texas law firm if that does not happen.