So the Rev. Don Shepherd, pastor of Healing Word Church, which owns the property, and applicant Amarjit Takhar, submitted the same request in hopes council members would vote differently. The public hearing was listed on Tuesday’s agenda, then Shepherd and Takhar asked city council to table the public hearing until the next meeting Dec. 21, but that motion didn’t receive enough support.
Council will hear the first reading on Dec. 21, then vote on the second reading on Jan. 4 when two new members, Zack Ferrell and Rodney Muterspaw, will be on council.
Middletown City Manager Jim Palenick said Warren County “values” the property as commercial while it’s considered a residential district by the city.
Shepherd said Healing Word purchased the property in 1998 in hopes of building a church and parking lot, but architects later determined the property size was inadequate.
In the last 23 years, since it’s zoned commercial and not residential, the church has paid $40,000 in taxes, according to Shepherd.
“We need to sell the property,” he told council.
He said the church has two “willing and able” buyers, both gas companies, interested in the property, and one, Takhar, has indicated he’d spend $3 million constructing a gas station with five pumps.
Shepherd believes having two gas stations on the same corner will create competition and lower gas prices for area residents. The proposed gas station will be “state of the art” and improve the corner, he said.
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