Zoning Out The Christmas Spirit

Ebenezer Scrooge is alive and well in Virginia Beach,
Va. That`s where government officials have launched a
punitive legal campaign against a Christian-based
charity that distributes toys and food to the poor.

For 16 years, the selfless volunteers of Mothers,
Inc. have served needy children and seniors with an
annual Thanksgiving turkey drive and Christmas toy
drive. The organization also provides families with
back-to-school supplies and helps locate shelter for the
homeless throughout the rest of the year.

Founder Brenda McCormick, an Air Force widow with two
children who had seen lean times herself during the
holidays, launched the charity to help families who fell
through the cracks in other existing programs.

“Never assume,” she says, that someone else is doing
something to help.

McCormick manages her grass-roots distribution
network from her home located a block from Virginia
Beach`s popular tourist strip. Donors drive to the house
to drop off teddy bears and bikes and other Christmas
bounties. The charity`s headquarters are tucked into a
residential district that allows a wide range of uses,
including day-care centers, churches, boarding homes,
and bed-and-breakfast inns.

As McCormick`s non-profit group grew more successful,
cranky neighbors complained about “excessive traffic”
and the “littering” of donated packages on the front
lawn. 

If Santa Claus himself touched down on the sidewalk
in his reindeer-drawn sleigh to help out with the
Mothers, Inc. toy drive, these people would kvetch about
the jingle bells making too much noise and Rudolph`s
glowing nose causing an eyesore.

City Scrooges cited McCormick for zoning law
violations earlier this year and took her to court. They
filed a misdemeanor criminal complaint charging her with
illegally operating a charitable organization in a
neighborhood. A judge dismissed the

complaint in October, but the government meanies
didn`t give up. They`ve impugned her record-keeping and
unjustly smeared her as a tax scofflaw. And this week,
they sought a preliminary injunction to stop Mothers,
Inc. from using McCormick`s house as a drop-off spot for
gifts.

Unbelievably, city zoning administrator Karen Lasley
attacked the charity for placing a sign in the front
yard alerting donors to its location. In court
testimony, Lasley also complained about people unloading
donations from cars and a table in the front yard with
slices of bread on it and a sign reading “free bread.“

The good news is that on Wednesday, a local judge

denied the city`s request to bar Mothers, Inc. from
collecting toys before Christmas. The bad: McCormick
will be hauled back into court on March 25, 2003 for
trial and a hearing on a permanent injunction against
the home-based charity.

McCormick is not alone. Good Samaritans across the
country are being targeted by

crotchety zoning czars. The

Becket Fund for Religious Liberty based in
Washington, D.C.,

notes that in Franklin County, Ohio,

Arthur Willhite has been similarly harassed by local
zoning officials seeking to shut down his ministry
delivering free bread, crackers, and cookies to the
needy. The battle has been waged for two years, during
which time Willhite and his family were forced to dump
dozens of truckloads of food that they had painstakingly
collected at Columbus area production and distribution
centers.

No one argues that these home-based charities should
be exempt from standard fire, public safety, traffic,
and building use codes. But local governments, infected
with callous NIMBYism, are increasingly using zoning
rules to curtail many charitable groups` First Amendment
rights to assemble and freely exercise their religious
mission of ministering to the disadvantaged. It is
shameful that both McCormick and Willhite are fighting
for constitutional protection to serve the poor during
this season of giving.

Yes, Virginia, there is a

Grinch.

Michelle Malkin is author of

for Michelle Malkin`s website.

COPYRIGHT 2002

CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.