Town approves Dynamic Life Ministries Special Use Permit to facilitate burial of late Pastor Rogers on church grounds

After a month-plus of trying to expedite action to allow Dynamic Life Ministries to bury its late pastor and co-founder W. Carlton Rogers on the church property, in just eight minutes on Monday evening, May 22nd, the Front Royal Planning Commission and Town Council joined forces to conduct a public hearing and successive votes approving the Special Use Permit request to facilitate that burial.

Other than Pastor Rogers wife, Elvi, who was invited to the podium by Mayor Lori Cockrell to comment on the process, there were no public hearing speakers. At the podium, Elvi Rogers commended town staff and boards for expediting action on the matter.

Elvi Rogers thanks town government officials for expediting approval of permitting allowing her late husband, Dynamic Life Pastor W. Carlton Rogers, to be buried on the church grounds before the end of May.

The public hearing closed, first on a motion by Commissioner Connie Marshner, the planning commission voted 4-0 (Commissioner Wood absent) to recommend approval of the request. Council followed a motion by Amber Morris to approve the SUP request.

And now Pastor Rogers may be laid to rest on his and the ministry’s choice of locations on the property he helped found and develop into a vibrant spiritual part of its community. The staff agenda summary noted that the cemetery plot would be just 10 feet by 10 feet on Dynamic Life’s expansive property and would not come within 250 yards of any residential properties and therefore be in compliance with the performance standards set forth in Town Code Chapter 175-107.4.

And with that accomplished, the Special Joint Meeting was adjourned by both bodies at 6:48 p.m.

It was a crowded podium as Front Royal’s planning commission, four seats to left, and the mayor and town council, seven seats to right, joined forced for final approval of the Special Use Permitting requested by Dynamic Life Ministries to facilitate the burial of its late pastor on the Dynamic Life grounds. Below is a graphic from an earlier meeting illustrating the site of the proposed cemetery ground, a light blue circle, on the Dynamic Life property, dark blue shaded grounds.

The planning commission was then done for the evening while the council prepared for its regular meeting, slated to start at 7 p.m.

Watch the 8-minute-plus video of the meeting here.