A church that plans to build on Old Hopper Road and had been seeking a special-use permit to add a day-care center informed the Cape Girardeau City Council in a letter Monday that it doesn't need the permit after all.

The letter from First Assembly of God of Cape Girardeau states that since an Aug. 6 meeting with the council, church leaders researched legal aspects of the special-use permit.

"That research confirms that we do not need a special-use permit to relocate our church ministries to our new property," the church's pastor, the Rev. Gary Brothers, wrote. "Had we known this in the beginning we would have certainly not gone through the process to apply for one."

While it doesn't speak specifically to the need for a special-use permit for a day-care center, it apparently applies to the center because that was the only item pertaining to the church on the council's Monday night agenda.

The council struck the item from the agenda, sending neighbors who opposed the plan home with few comments.

"We're not giving up," was all one man said. Another, when asked what their plans are now, said: "We're going home."

Brothers, who has been to the past several council meetings promoting the plan, did not attend Monday's meeting. He could not be reached for comment afterward.

The church originally had sought council approval for the entire 53.7-acre church project along Old Hopper Road. Neighbors opposed the size of the project even after an amphitheater and sports complex were eliminated. They said it would depreciate property values and dangerously increase the area's traffic.

No zoning jurisdiction

The council said it had no jurisdiction over the rezoning of a church and that it would be a First Amendment freedom-of-religion violation to tell a religious body where it could or could not locate.

At the Aug. 6 meeting, the council narrowly initially approved a special-use permit for the day-care center at the site. But that had been called into question after neighbors vowed to gather enough petition signatures to require a supermajority from the council one more vote than the proposal seemed to have. The matter was up for a second reading Monday.

"They say they do not need a permit," said Mayor Al Spradling III. "That is all we know at this point. I don't want to speak to what is legal or not. All I know is that this is not an issue before us right now."

Councilman Tom Neumeyer, who voted to deny the special-use permit Aug. 6, said he would never be critical of the church.

"They have done too much good in the community," he said. "I voiced what the neighbors wanted at the last meeting. I represented the people, and that's who we answer to. But it appears that it may not be in the council's hands anymore."

The site sits in Councilman Butch Eggimann's ward. He said the issue seems far from over.

"We just seem really limited to what we can do," he said. "When it comes to religious items like that, there are a lot of gray areas."