For 80 years, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church has gone without indoor toilets.

"Parishioners have to exit the church and walk to our classroom building in order to use the toilet during services," supporting documentation for a special use permit public hearing at tonight's city council meeting said.

With unanimous approval from council, all that will change.

Tom Starbuck, a church member and architect who designed the expansion plans for the church on Hamilton Street, said following the public hearing all that is needed now to begin the job is a building permit.

Starbuck was the only person who spoke at the public hearing and there was no objection from the public before the meeting, said Planning and Development Director Amanda Jarratt.

The existing sacristy, a room for keeping church vestments, is cramped and not functional, the document says. "The confessional is also located in this cramped area."

The existing sacristy is not handicap accessible and the floor is 7 inches higher than the naive, or entrance to the high altar. "The door is too narrow for wheelchairs. We plan to remove the door to this area, widen the opening for wheelchair access and lower the floor to match the naive."

The church also plans to add off street handicap parking with a ramp to the sacristy, the document notes.

The plans also call for additional improvements, according to the document. The existing sacristy will be enlarged for the storage of linens and vessels. An 820 square feet addition is proposed to house an office and changing room for the priest, a confessional, separate changing room for altar servers and toilet rooms for men and women.

Starbuck told council the expansion, which will match the current architecture of the church, will make the building 4,028 square feet. When it was built in 1931, the church held 100 people. An expansion in the late 1950s increased the capacity to 250 people.