Zoners Approve Church in Old Larry Holmes Restaurant

Easton's Zoning Hearing Board has given a church permission to move its congregation into .

Holmes shut down his Ringside restaurant/nightclub on the street that bears his name last year.

On Monday night, the zoners gave the boxing champ's daughter the OK to move her Revival Fire Ministries into the vacant space. Misty Holmes-Dorsey said it will end a long period of the congregation bouncing around.

"We've just been going to different places, we've officially moved out of our last location," she told the board. Revival Fire had been located on Northampton Street. 

Holmes-Dorsey said the church is an active one; in addition to regular services, there are meetings several times a week, a youth group, a food pantry and a book store.

"What do you do in your spare time?" jokes board chairman James Eddinger.

Her father came to speak on her behalf, telling the board he was proud of his daughter and her ministry, recalling that -- when she was 18 -- he told her to find God.

"I never thought that my daughter would be doing this," Holmes said. "She found God. Twenty-some years later, she's still with him. I want her to have somewhere to go…without a whole bunch of headaches."

The board also had questions about flooding; the property is within the city's floodplain, and close to the Delaware River, but Larry Holmes said flood waters "never got up that high."

Board members said they were encouraged that the Holmes family was well-versed in city flood procedure.

"We've had some pretty challenging floods, so that's a positive thing. They know the procedure," Pam Panto. 

The church's move to Larry Holmes Drive also got the blessing of Riverstar Properties, which owns the L&D Holmes Plaza, and from resident Matt Munsey, who volunteers for the , which shares the former Ringside building with the space the church plans to move into. 

Larry Holmes closed down the Ringside last year -- and set up a new restaurant, Champ's Corner, on the South Side -- after fighting with the city over its proposed .