Thursday, April 17, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.
A homeless shelter that for 14 years has operated illegally in a residential neighborhood got a reprieve from the Las Vegas City Council Wednesday when a misunderstanding over handwritten messages in the council chambers led to the granting of a delay.
Councilman Lawrence Weekly reluctantly requested to hold the God in Me Ministries shelter item until May 7 after a number of people interested in speaking on the subject left after reading on two bulletin boards that a delay had been requested for the issue.
City Attorney Brad Jerbic said that while the council has long encouraged that everyone who wants to speak on an issue get the opportunity, he told the council it didn't have to postpone the hearing because it is the public's responsibility to stay until such requests are granted and not assume they will be approved. The request for abeyance was approved unanimously.
"We just wanted to be fair," Weekly said after the meeting. "This is a tough, emotional issue. We were prepared today to address how we could help relocate the residents of the shelter. The last thing any of us wants to do is put these men back on the streets with nowhere to go."
About 20 men still reside at the facility, located in the 800 block of Hassell and Hart avenues. The ministry is seeking to rezone its four adjacent buildings from medium-low residential to civic. Both the Planning Commission and city staff have recommended denial. Nine years ago the council had denied God in Me a zoning change, but the the shelter operation continued, apparently without the city's knowledge.
But a few months ago, after a neighbor complained to the city's Neighborhood Services office that at least 70 homeless men were living at God in Me, the city discovered the ministry had neither the proper zoning nor a business license.
Anthony V. Mosley, a local businessman who has been running the facility since its founder, Joe Prange, died three years ago, has denied knowing the ministry did not have the zoning or a license. He is attempting to save the shelter.
"I was called just shortly before the meeting and was told the item would be held in abeyance, but I came anyway," he said. "I can only guess that my attorney has asked for an abeyance so that we can research whether (certain) laws apply in our case."
The laws Mosley are referring to deal with people who perform functions -- even ones that may skirt the law -- unabated for a long time all of a sudden being denied that right.
For example, a person who trespasses across vacant land for many years may sue a developer who previously had taken no action to prevent use of the shortcut but then denies access to develop the land. Should the person prevail, the developer would somehow have to provide access through the new development.
Questions that remain include whether the council's previous denial negates the possibility that such laws are applicable or whether the city's failure to enforce that prior denial opened the door for the shelter to remain at its present location.
Mosley said his attorney is Christopher Kaempfer. Attempts to reach Kaempfer, a prominent local real estate attorney who has represented numerous developers, were not successful.
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