Hermitage Zoning Hearing Board granted a special exception Monday for St. John's Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church to build a new church.

But the church also requested a variance to get out of some zoning ordinance provisions, and the board suggested it take its case to a higher power: the Hermitage commissioners.

The church, currently at 725 Cedar Ave., Sharon, wants to abandon the home it's had since 1938, said Steve Lukac, president of the church board.

The church is in a "depleting neighborhood," and the building, built in 1938, is expensive to heat and has no air conditioning, Lukac said.

The church also is across the street from its educational center.

Lukac said the congregation has fallen from about 400 families to about 200.

"We need to downsize," Lukac said.

The congregation wants to build a new church on the property of its cemetery at Morefield and South Hermitage roads in Hermitage.

The zoning ordinance allows churches in the single-family residential section as long as they meet requirements for parking, lot size and other factors.

But the church also is in an overlay district that was created to spur development along state Route 18. The overlay has stringent landscaping requirements, including the building of sidewalks, curbing and vegetation.

Lukac said the price to build about 130 feet of sidewalk would be "exorbitant."

"It's all done by donations -- people's blood and sweat," said Lukac, who said he has paid for the cost of all the initial planning for the new church.

Lukac also said he would not want to build curbing around all of the parking lot. In the winter, he wants to be able to just push snow into the grass, he said.

Michael Ristvey, the church's attorney, said he doesn't believe the commissioners envisioned a church in this zone.

"We're trying to put a square peg in a round hole," he said.

The board suggested church officials subdivide the property, which would alleviate the need for sidewalks along Hermitage Road, but not Morefield, or approach the city commissioners about amending the ordinance.

"There's nothing wrong with the request, but this might be the wrong body," said board solicitor Roger Shaffer.

"We'll take this to the powers that be and see if we can get anywhere with this question," Ristvey said.

The board granted the church's request for a continuance of the hearing. There is no time limit for the church to ask for a resumption of the hearing or to withdraw the variance request.