CASTLE HILLS, Texas -- A mission to start a seminary school for the deaf was stalled Tuesday evening by the Castle Hills City Council.

Hundreds of people attended the meeting at City Hall – housed in an old church – as members of the new church asked the council to grant a special use permit for seminarians to reside in a single-family residence currently undergoing modification for multiple-person use.

Castle Hills has an ordinance that prevents more than five unrelated people from living in the same residence.

Of the 26 people who spoke to the council, ten supported a refusal of the special use permit.

When the vote was tallied, the city council voted 3-to-2 against granting the permit.

Speaking through an interpreter, Father Tom Coughlin of the Dominican Ministry of the Deaf expressed his discontent.

“I feel numb,” he signed. “Numb with shock that Castle Hills would do such a thing with us.”

Coughlin said he does not know what the seminary will do now, but is considering an appeal of the decision.

The group can re-apply for the same permit in one year.