Despite opposition from the Mount Vernon community, local preservationists and City Council member Eric Costello, the Baltimore Planning Commission voted 5 to 2 today to approve a request to subdivide the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church from an adjoining church office building.

Joseph Novoseller, a New Jersey developer who has contracted to buy the property, has been vague about his plans for the 148-year-old church, a cultural and architectural anchor for the Mount Vernon Place historic district.

But he has made clear that he wants to sell an 1855 townhouse next door, and he needed the land subdivision in order to do so.

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