The Inter-Mountain photo by Taylor McKinnie Rivers of Living Water Ministries wants to sell this property on 503 Lincoln Avenue in Elkins to new owners that want to open a Class 1 child day care center.

ELKINS — Elkins City Council is in the process of making an adjustment to its zoning code in response to a request from the Rivers of Living Water Ministries.

Council has approved the first reading of an ordinance that would add Class 1 child day care facilities to the list of conditional use facilities in Elkins’ City Residential (R-2) Zoning District.

The eight present council members approved the resolution during theJuly 10 meeting. Council members Robert Chenoweth of First Ward and Andrew Carroll of Fourth Ward were absent from the meeting. This was the first of two readings.

The ordinance will have to pass the second reading at the City Council’s next meeting on July 24 before it goes into effect.

The ordinance came after a recommendation from the Elkins City Planning Commission, who received and reviewed a citizen request by the Rivers of Living Water Ministries, the owner of a church property located at 503 Lincoln Avenue, to include and to allow a Class 1 child day care facility on the property, which is in the R-2 zoning district.

Currently, according to the Elkins City Zoning Code, only Class 3 daycares, which care for four to six children under age six, and Class 4 daycares, which care for up to three children under age six, are permitted to reside in the R-2 zoning district as per Elkins’ zoning code.

The Zoning Code states that Class 1 daycares, which care for 13 or more children, are only allowed to reside in Elkins’ Central Business (CB) and Commercial (C) zones.

Mike Boggs, the pastor at Rivers of Living Water Ministries, explained to council during the meeting’s public comment section that the ministry wishes to sell the property, which they have owned since 2007, to “a couple who wants to buy it” and turn the building into a Class 1 daycare.

The Rivers of Living Water Ministries has been planning on moving onto a property behind the UPS Customer Center, off the Beverly Five-Lane. Construction on that property began in September 2023.

Boggs tried to sooth concerns that have been raised by officials and the Planning Commission regarding whether a Class 1 daycare would bring parking and noise issues to Lincoln Avenue.

“What I want to assure the council is this: I can give you an ironclad guarantee that the impact of that Class 1 daycare is going to pale in comparison to the impact our church had as far as the activity in the neighborhood,” Boggs said. “Because we had people coming and going every single day, delivery trucks all the time. We had activities outside, we had block parties (where) seven (hundred) to 900 people would come, we backed tractor trailers up in the parking lot… had outdoor bands… and all kinds of different things… So (the daycare is) going to be a rapidly scaled down thing.”

Newly elected Fifth Ward Council Member Burley Woods, who is a member of the Planning Commission, informed council that, when considering the citizen request from the Rivers of Living Water Ministries, it was “back and forth” on what the commission thought was best for the city. Woods explained that, in their recommendation to council, the commission wanted residents in the Lincoln Avenue area to have a say in the overall development of their community. This was Wood’s first Elkins City Council meeting.

Before council voted, City Attorney Geraldine Roberts explained that passing the ordinance during the second reading would not automatically approve the creation of a Class 1 daycare in the R-2 zoning District, but would permit such a facility to apply to the Elkins’ Board of Zoning Appeals for consideration.

“It has to go to the Board of Zoning Appeals, so even if you pass this ordinance tonight and on the second reading, that doesn’t mean it’s automatic,” Roberts said. “All it means is that this owner of the property, like any owner of a property, that wants to have a conditional use (facility)… (would have to go) to the Board of Zoning Appeals. There’s a whole process… That decision (to approve the daycare) will ultimately go to the BZA.”

Other facilities on the conditional facilities list for the R-2 zoning district include bakery, brewery pub, community facility, conversion apartment dwelling, multi-family dwelling, emergency shelter, mass gathering event, governmental operation, low impact home-based business, museum, parking lot, places of worship/religious institution, reception facility, municipal recreation, preK-12 school and senior independent housing.

Elkins City Council’s next meeting will be July 24 at the Phil Gainer Community Center.