Naperville woman can’t hold church services in her basement
Daily Herald
By: Marie Wilson
09 September 2016

Debra Richmond has been operating Life Reach Ministry Church out of the basement of her townhouse in this four-unit building near 95th Street and Book Road in Naperville.           Daniel White  Staff Photographer

A Naperville woman who has been operating a small Christian church out of the basement of her townhouse has been asked to find another place to conduct services.

The planning and zoning commission this week unanimously denied Debra Richmond's request for special permission to operate a church -- classified as an institutional use -- out of her townhouse in a residential area near 95th Street and Book Road.

Richmond has been hosting one service a week from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays with three regular attendees and occasional visitors in her basement, where she says she has space for 14 people.

"Having church service in the home will not have any negative effects on the neighborhood," Richmond said. "We have been very considerate and very respectful."

Her neighbor, Dray Howard, said the services have been quiet and she's never heard the music. But Howard and another leader of the Sawgrass Winds homeowners association complained to the city when they say Richmond violated the development's rules about signs and on-street parking.

No signs are allowed in windows or yards and no parking on the street is allowed outside Richmond's townhouse on the 2900 block of Brossman Street, Howard said.

But Richmond recently placed a small sign in her window noting the name of her church, Life Reach Ministry, and its service time. And neighbors reported churchgoers parking on the street.

The problem with hosting church services in a townhouse basement is not so much the worship, but the potential liability that comes from conducting an institutional function in an area meant only for residential living, planning and zoning commission members said in explaining their denial.

"I don't believe it's possible to prevent you from having a group of people at your house and conducting a religious service," Commissioner Robert Williams told Richmond, who said she was ordained as a minister in November 2007. "But when you make an institutional change, and thereby in essence run a business from your home, then it's subject to control by the municipality."

The property would have to be brought up to fire code and potentially carry additional insurance than what Richmond would have as a private homeowner, commissioners said. And meeting fire code by installing sprinklers doesn't come cheap.

"There may be a better opportunity to rent space from a building that's already up to code," Commissioner Sean Hastings said.

Following the denial, Richmond said she had no comment. She wouldn't say what she plans to do with her church now that hosting it at her home isn't allowed. The next day, the church's website said "we are moving to a new location."

"I hope your congregation prospers," Williams told her, "but you ought not to do it in a residential setting because that's loaded with legal and business problems."


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