MJ Taylor, Minot

I received a letter from the City Planner dated Dec.17th, 2024, informing 53 property owners around Our Lady of Grace of a request to rezone their property from R1 (residential) to P (public). For more information to contact the Planning Dept.

I found out that the Church is planning to build a 3,000 to 4,000 sq ft food bank in the SW corner of their property. Only 2 of us contacted the City to find out the need for Zoning change. I informed the neighbors on both sides of my home and they were not liking the idea of this commercial sized building. We are concerned about the additional semi and other traffic involved with a large operation like this.

I went to the City Planning meeting on Dec 21st and found that I was the only one at the meeting from the 53 property owners informed on Dec 17th. The Planning Commission approved the change to make this a Public Zone.

I did some checking on the Minot City Code of Ordinance definition of Public Zone. It is for land owned by the local government for public use. There are 28 permitted uses for Public zoning starting with Civic centers and ending with modular classrooms on school property. There isn’t Church listed as a choice.

I appeared before the City Council at the meeting on Jan 21st. The City approved the zoning change.

Why? The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person Act of 2000 has been used to allow this.

The Our Lady of Grace Church advertised for bids on Jan 22nd for the building of a 60’x 108′ metal prefab building. They also had bids in separate ads for adding on to the church and rectory.

I don’t think that the neighborhood is aware of the big changes that are coming to our residential neighborhood.

What happened to the separation of Church and Government?

The request to change Zoning was not clear to property owners as to the building of the food bank. My understanding is that you can not get a building permit in residential zones for a commercial sized building.