This has been a fulfilling week for Kevin Shive.
On Saturday, he returned to Golden with the little girl he and his wife had just adopted in China.
And Thursday, Shive learned he won’t have to tear down the $500,000 addition to Hillside Community Church in Golden, where he is associate pastor.
The Colorado Court of Appeals said Thursday that Jefferson County District Judge Kenneth Barnhill, who ordered the addition torn down and the parking lot torn out, didn’t have the legal authority to review the case.
Neighbors had complained that the church started building without the proper permits.
But now the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated church can continue to use the addition as its main place of worship.
Shive said the legal battle of seven years has been tough on the 300-member congregation. Legal fees were more than $200,000.
“There were times when we all thought we were going to have to start letting people go. I thought I was going to have to look elsewhere,” Shive said.
Tom Overton, the lawyer for the church, said the battle has taken a toll.
“It is a young, high-energy church, but this has been incredibly devastating for them,” Overton said. “They don’t have the money of a large church.”
The fight has actually helped the congregation regain its focus, Shive said.
“We want to make this right; we want to do what’s right,” the pastor said. “We want to continue to serve the community.”
Despite the controversy, there is no animosity between Shive and those suing the church and Golden over the addition.
One of those suing is Marian Olson, who worked for President Nixon’s “energy czar,” former Colorado Gov. John Love, in Washington. She later served as regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Denver.
She and Shive have become friends.
Olson and another neighbor, Ida Mae Brueske, complained to Golden after Hillside began construction of the addition without complying with Golden’s municipal code and uniform building code. They filed suit against the city and Hillside after Golden permitted Hillside to continue construction and granted Hillside a building permit, a height variance and a certificate of occupancy.
“My passion is the rule of law,” Olson said. “That is an imperative that has to be followed, and that’s why I had to do what I had to do.”
She believes the appeals court misapplied the law and will now spend time pondering her next legal step, including whether to ask the Colorado Supreme Court to intervene.
In the meantime, she has invited Shive and his wife, son and new baby daughter to lunch.
“She told me how much she wanted to take us out, and I jokingly asked, ‘Are you buying?”‘ Shive recalled.
Olson said Thursday that her invitation of May 3 still stands, with her footing the bill.
“I wouldn’t have invited them otherwise,” Olson said.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.