By Chelyen Davis
RICHMOND — A House subcommittee has killed a bill that would let churches run daycares or schools without the approval of the local government.
The bill, from Del. Mark Cole, was sparked by a battle last year between the Fredericksburg City Council and Calvary Christian Center, about the church’s efforts to add a day school for disabled children.
 Last August, the city denied the church’s application for a special use permit for the day school. The church sued, and lost in a federal court ruling last November.
Cole’s bill would have allowed churches to run a school or daycare without having to get another permit from the local government.
“Currently some localities are treating these situations differently,” Cole said at an early-morning subcommittee meeting. “As long as the building is built to code… it really shouldn’t be of any concern to the locality what ministry the church performs. A lot of churches operate schools as part of their church ministry.”
Several church leaders came to the subcommittee meeting, including Pastor Michael Hirsch, of Calvary Christian Center.
He read out information from the Department of Justice about the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and said Cole’s bill is “about restoring religious liberty” to churches.
The bill was supported by the Family Foundation and the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists.
“These are ministries of churches,” said Jack Knapp, lobbyists for the Baptist group.
But opponents said that while church activities might do little to disrupt the neighborhood in which a church is located, school activities are different.
Traffic to and from schools “is entirely different” than that of churches, said Mark Flynn of the Virginia Municipal League.
“The locality has to look at the impact on everyone,” Flynn said.
Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, spoke of a neighborhood in his area that had a church, and when the church was allowed to open a school, crossing guards and other measures had to be instituted to deal with the increased traffic in a residential area.
If local officials know any church might open a school at any time, Knight said, they might be less likely to approve churches at all.
“It’s actually going to hurt churches because nobody’s going to grant a conditional use permit to a church because knowing what may happen,” Knight said.
The subcommittee voted to lay the bill on the table, which essentially kills it.