Trustees of Mount Calvary M.B. Church on East Avenue won the blessing of the Vicksburg Board of Zoning Appeals Tuesday after displaying plans for a new parish hall and a sanctuary expansion.

Presented with a three-dimensional model and architect’s plans by Duvall Decker Architects of Jackson, the lay board approved the project and voted to allow exemptions from certain grading and setback regulations based on the project’s specifications.

The church, built in 1912, has about 175 regular members, said trustee Delaney Johnson. The expansion will increase the main building’s capacity to about 280. The auxiliary building will serve community outreach projects and will house Sunday school classrooms, Johnson said.

“I am very excited about it because it is a big change for the church,” said Edna Green, who has been a member since she was baptized at Mount Calvary 52 years ago.

In other business Tuesday, the zoning board:

* Approved a special exception to Ergon Refining to move trailers back several hundred feet from a hydro-processing unit at its Haining Road facility. Trailers housing administrative offices are in violation of OSHA regulations if less than 330 feet distance from the unit. Ergon’s request for a variation for a temporary parking lot was also approved.

* Approved a special exception for Freddie Parson of Parson Construction to park several trucks in a lot off Poplar Street behind Miller’s Tire Mart, with the condition that Parson pave the area and construct a fence at least 6 feet high shielding it from plain view.

* Rezoned a small parcel near the planned development site for Comfort Inn and Suites hotel near Pizza Inn on East Clay Street, a parcel that includes a home at 150 Berryman Road. The rezoning to general commercial will put the planned hotel in compliance with setback regulations. One neighbor who was set to argue against the rezoning withdrew her objections after owner representative Ramesh Patel and attorney Mack Varner assured her the house at 150 Berryman, next to the woman’s own house, would not be torn down.

Also meeting Tuesday was the Board of Architectural Review. That panel, in its only action, approved lettering and a size exemption to a sign for the south end of the Mafan Building at 1315 Adams St. Its first floor was renovated to serve patients as First Baptist’s free medical clinic for people not covered by public or private insurance.

The clinic, funded by donations and grants, sees patients each third Thursday of the month, and 45 to 90 patients are served monthly.

A sign at the north end of the clinic saying Mafan Building will likely remain, and a matching sign at the south end will identify it as a ministry building for First Baptist Church.