CITY PANEL REJECTS PLAN TO LET SIX NUNS LIVE IN HOUSE – 6 Apr 2000 P-D

A city panel Wednesday night rejected a plan that would allow six Catholic nuns to live in a house near Tower Grove Park.

The Planning and Urban Design Commission voted not to accept the proposal after opposition by Zoning Administrator John Koch and some city planners.

Koch, a former alderman in the nuns’ neighborhood, believes the plan would have left the city open to “questionable groups.” The city code allows only three unrelated people to live in one house.

The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul already have three members living in a seven-bedroom house of Flora Place in the Shaw neighborhood.

Last month, Edward Roth, a neighbor and lawyer, proposed a zoning change to the city that would allow six unrelated people of a religious order to share a house. Roth is also a member of the St. Louis Police Board.

Despite the commission’s opposition to the plan, Roth said he plans to lobby the Board of Aldermen, saying, “This is just one step.”

Roth, however, acknowledged that he has an uphill battle. The 13-member commission included two aldermen, Jim Shrewsbury, D-16th Ward, and Fred Wessels, D-13th Ward, both of whom voted not to accept the plan.

Another alderman, Steve Conway, D-8th Ward, who lives on Flora, opposes the plan.

“The experts thought this was a poorly drafted petition from a constitutional standpoint, and it was an unacceptable change of our zoning code,” said Conway after the commission’s vote.

Roth, however, believes there is citywide support for the nuns.

In fact, he pointed out that the Daughters of Charity recently received a variance that allows four nuns to live in a house on Oakhill Avenue.

However, he acknowledged that most neighbors on Flora are opposed to the order’s plans.

OFFICIAL OPPOSES PLAN FOR NUNS TO LIVE IN HOME – HE SAYS CITY WOULD BE OPEN TO “QUESTIONABLE GROUPS” – 4 Apr 2000 P-D

The city’s zoning administrator is opposing a plan that would allow six Catholic nuns to live in a house north of Tower Grove Park.

The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul already have three members living in a stately seven-bedroom house on Flora Place in the Shaw neighborhood. The order would like an exemption from the city housing code, which allows only three unrelated persons to live in one house.

Last month, Edward Roth, a neighbor and lawyer, proposed a zoning change that would allow six unrelated people of a religious order to share a house. Roth also is a member of the St. Louis Police Board.

The city’s Planning and Urban Design Commission is expected to review the plan on Wednesday. But zoning administrator John Koch, a former alderman for the Shaw neighborhood, believes that Roth’s idea is “contrary to established city policies that seek to reduce density in residential neighborhoods.”

He said the proposal would leave the city wide open to “questionable groups.”

In his written recommendation to the commission, Koch said that the plan, “while focused on permitting the residency of religious orders and seemingly tightly crafted, could well permit such groups as the Branch Davidians and the Jim Joneses.”

About 80 members of the Davidians died when their compound near Waco, Texas, was destroyed by fire during a siege by federal agents in 1993. The Rev. Jim Jones and 912 of his followers committed suicide by drinking poison at their temple in South America in 1978.

Sister Rosemary DeDentro, who lives in the house on Flora, said she was upset with Koch’s comparisons.

“I’m just dumbfounded that this would be the comparison,” DeDentro said. “Those are cults that he is talking about. I just don’t know what the resistance is all about. I really don’t.”

Regardless of the commission’s decision, the Board of Aldermen would have to approve the proposal.

Alderman Steve Conway, D-8th Ward, who lives on Flora, opposes the plan. Conway said Koch’s recommendation “just makes good legal sense. Who is the city to determine what is a legitimate religious order?”

Roth said he hasn’t yet asked an alderman to formally support his idea and acknowledged that most people on Flora Place oppose the plan.

“But this is a citywide issue that has support by voters across the city,” Roth said.

He said the Daughters of Charity recently received a variance that allows four sisters to live in a house on Oakhill Avenue.

Last October, the three sisters moved into the house on Flora after the order bought it for about $280,000. The estimated value of the houses on Flora ranges from about $100,000 to about $300,000, residents said.

The three nuns were among nearly 90 who were displaced after their provincial house in Normandy was sold to the University of Missouri at St. Louis. Since last year, the Daughters of Charity have bought at least seven houses across the St. Louis area for nuns, including the one on Flora.

SOME OPPOSE PLAN BY NUNS TO BOOST PRESENCE ON FLORA PLACE – LIVING ARRANGEMENT WOULD VIOLATE ZONING LAW, OPPONENTS ARGUE – 6 Mar 200 P-D

Sister Rosemary DeDentro likes the companionship of two fellow Catholic nuns who live with her in a stately brick house near Tower Grove Park.

The nuns pray together, eat together and discuss details of their day as a family might, DeDentro said last week, pride evident in her voice.

Now, the sisters’ religious order wants to add three more nuns to the house. But some of neighbors on Flora Place — including Alderman Steve Conway — oppose the plan.

The sisters have a powerful ally, however: Edward Roth, a lawyer, Police Board member and neighbor.

Roth plans to introduce a zoning change Tuesday that would allow six unrelated people of a religious order to share a house. City rules allow only three.

“The question is whether we, as a community, can reach a balance between tolerance and stability,” Roth said. “I don’t think that people who devote their lives to religious vocation should have to ask my permission to be my neighbor.”

Opponents say religion is not the issue.

Conway, a Democratic alderman in the 8th Ward, is Catholic.

“This is not a Catholic thing,” he said last week. “This is about whether or not this will encourage other groups who have group living arrangements to come live on Flora Place.”

Last October, the three sisters moved into the seven-bedroom house after the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul bought it for about $280,000. The nuns were among nearly 90 women who were displaced after their provincial house in Normandy was sold to the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

Since last year, the Daughters of Charity have bought seven houses across the St. Louis area for nuns, including the one on Flora Place. The organization plans to buy two more houses in the St. Louis area.

Sister Marie Therese Sedgwick, provincial of the Daughters of Charity, said Catholic organizations buy houses all over the country for nuns and usually don’t have any problems.

In fact, the Daughters of Charity recently received a variance that allows four sisters to live together in another house on Oakhill Avenue.

Most of the nuns live in groups of four to six in a house.

“We commit to living together for common goals — our spiritual life,” said DeDentro, 55, a 33-year member of the Daughters of Charity.

DeDentro also counsels and visits children and parents at a home in St. Louis for abused children and children who have AIDS or are HIV-positive.

DeDentro said she considers the other sisters a “religious family.”

“The question is, what is a family?” DeDentro asked. “Which kind of family enriches a broader community?”

Flora Place is a six-block long street with 155 houses in the Shaw neighborhood. The estimated value of the houses ranges from about $100,000 to about $300,000, residents said.

Dave Reid, president of the Flora Place Association, said he is trying to negotiate a resolution with the nuns. But he acknowledged last week that he had yet to schedule a meeting with the Daughters of Charity.

He added that he believed the nuns were violating a street convenant that restricts houses to families only. Roth said there is no such covenant.

Bob Niemeier, who lives next door to the sisters, said he doesn’t believe they should live in the house because he is opposed to “corporate ownership.”

The house is owned by the Daughters of Charity, a sponsor of Ascension Health, a multibillion-dollar national health care system that runs hospitals and clinics across the country.

The order itself was founded in the 1600s by St. Vincent de Paul. It has been involved in a variety of charity efforts.

“This threatens the residential quality of the street,” Niemeier said. “What happens when another corporation wants to open a bed and breakfast?”

But Roth said his neighbors should spend their efforts on other issues in the city.

“We have a lot of problems in the city of St. Louis, but too many nuns is not one of them,” Roth said.

Jerry Burger editorial – 29 Aug 1999 P-D

ON THE TOWN: Neighbors on Flora Place in the Shaw neighborhood are still clucking about a recent house sale. A religious order has plopped down a cool $280,000 for a home in the carefully restored 3600 block and applied for a permit to do another $50,000 worth of renovations. Ordinances and zoning regs ban more than three unrelated adults from inhabiting a single-family residence in the city …