DANVILLE — The City Council approved a zoning ordinance change on Tuesday to allow for a Bible Museum.
Petitioner, Christopher Pickering, stated during the meeting his intentions for the property at 702 N. Logan Ave.
“I’m not sure what information you have, but we plan to do a Bible Museum in there,” Pickering said. “Currently, it doesn’t meet code. We’re working with our architect to do the design for the renovations.”
Pickering said he purchased the property last September and asked for a special use permit to begin renovations. He said the Bible Museum will have two stories with sections for the Old and New Testaments, as well as an area focusing on Christian missionaries.
The building, according to Pickering, will need quite a few substantial repairs, which seemed to concern some of the Aldermen.
“We don’t need another building that is stripped and left. We’ve torn down enough of them,” Alderman Doug Ahrens said. “To do those buildings right, it’s probably six to seven figures.”
Pickering said the buildings, which are three in number, has had “the copper taken out, so it needs heat, electricity.”
Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. shared Ahrens’ concerns, saying that if the property is not brought up to code, and then the city does something about the property, they would have to go through the court process.
Alderman Ed Butler spoke in support of Pickering renovating the property.
“The building, it’s been sitting there for years, and I’ve talked to this young man,” Butler said. “Anything is possible. And I just admire him for [taking] on that task, to try to flip the building, and then to make, to make it out of something that’s going to possibly, hopefully, you know, with the help of other people, that building would be used for youth activities.”
Pickering added that until they had approval from the city, they didn’t want to move forward.
“We didn’t want to invest money into it if we wouldn’t be able to go through with it,” Pickering said. “I can’t turn it into a museum until you approve the zoning use.”
Alderwoman Tricia Teague also spoke out in support of Pickering.
“We are not being tasked or asked for funds. We’re simply being asked to change the zoning so that they could potentially proceed with their plans, correct?” Teague asked before the vote.
Teague continued, “So it’s either let the building sit as it is with the issues that it already has — and you said it was missing copper — so that’s a significant issue … Okay, so let the building sit, or let them proceed with the plans that they have.”
Ultimately, the board voted to approve the amendment to the zoning petition and amended the map to allow for the Bible Museum. Pickering told the council he estimates the work would take around 5 years.
Council also approved a zoning change for the property at 434 Avenue B from an industrial zone to a residential zone for a single-family residence.