Belvidere council tables upcoming church expansion plans
Thursday, 07 July 2011 20:27 Margaret Rock
The Belvidere City Council devoted another two hours to the subject of St. James Catholic Church’s expansion plans at their full meeting last Monday.
More than 60 people filled council chambers and spilled into the hallway to hear testimony of about 15 people in support and opposition to the plan.
The city is involved in the plans because in order to proceed, the proposal needs a zoning change and a planned development approval. The council opened the floor to comment on the two issues. The first ordinance involves a request to change the zoning to reflect the current use. The buildings the church own aren’t zoned Institutional, which is their current and established use, but the zoning didn’t reflect that. In order to proceed with the proposed changes, the applicant for the church is asking for the zoning to reflect current use and then also asking for approval of the planned development of the site. Both ordinances involved properties at 554 S. Main Street, 311 Church Street, 514 and 525 Caswell Street, and 320 Logan Avenue.
The second is a planned development request to allow a new, larger church to be constructed near the location of the current church, which was constructed in 1886, and to demolish the existing church and turn it into a parking lot.
Though Mayor Brereton asked those giving public input to limit their comments to the two ordinances at hand, which was the exception rather than the rule, as person after person took the podium to urge the council to vote way or another, often relating their personal issues and voicing dissatisfaction with the church’s direction and future vision.
Many residents were opposed to the demolition of the old church, which, with its 350 seat capacity, is no longer big enough to serve the estimated 2200 parishioners who attend weekly mass. Because of the age of the church and its condition, Bishop Doran is giving priority for St. James to build a new 850-seat facility, which is estimated to cost $5.5 million.
Others were concerned that the parking, which currently isn’t adequate, would become a major problem with the increased traffic. One resident said the large structure is too big for the space, calling it a “monolithic building on a postage stamp sized lot.”
Several residents raised safety as a concern, pointing to the building’s lack of setbacks and towering height, estimated to reach nearly 70 feet, in addition to increasing traffic congestion.
Parishioner Bill Pysson didn’t object to a rebuilding in theory, but pointed to this specific architectural design as problematic. Pysson said the proposed design is what is creating the problems with setbacks, shading, and many of the church’s goals could be achieved if the church looked to a more contemporary design.
Another group who were opposed to tearing down the 125-year-old church described themselves as members of the church, and expressed interest in building a new church, or even a second church, at land that was donated to the St. James in 1998 by Mary Bracken.
The 22-acre parcel at Squaw Prairie and Townhall Road had been previously considered, but several factors, sewer connection foremost among them, ruled it out. According to Jeff Linkenheld, a civil engineer and parish member who has been working on a church committee exploring expansion, the water connection to the site would be $400,000 and the sewer connection, which would need to be built could cost in the millions of dollars.
Robert Casey, saying he represented church members took the podium to present information that was directly related to the two ordinances. Casey said the Planning Commission’s approval of a variance to allow the new church to reach 70 feet needs to be revisited. According to Casey, the current church is 50 feet at its top ridge, and the Alpine Bank is 54 feet tall.
Casey said this variance and the approval of the proposal, with a height variance, minimal setbacks, and inadequate parking needs would “substantially alter the character of the community,” a threshold the Planning Commission uses when reviewing cases. In addition, Casey maintained that the applicant failed to comply with some conditions outlined in the granting of the cases, too.
Fr. Geary addressed those assembled, stressing that the church is
Councilwoman Karen Schrader made a motion to table the zoning ordinance until the August 1st meeting, which was seconded by Michael Chamberlain and passed unanimously.
Schrader then made a motion to table the planned use ordinance until the August 1st meeting, which was seconded by Michael Chamberlain. Before a vote could be taken, Alderman Clint Morris asked to give some discussion.
Morris proceeded to read from the Planning Commission’s Advisory Report, where he noted author Kathy Miller’s concerns about the height of the building, either explicitly or implicitly mentioned several times. Morris said the preliminary minutes from that meeting were not really clear, but it appeared some of Miller’s concerns were removed from the findings before the vote was taken to approve the variance.
“I have a problem with this,” Morris said.
Mayor Brereton said that the official court reporter transcripts from the lengthy Planning Commission meeting, totally over 130 pages, would be available by July 15th. Brereton suggested that if Morris still has a problem with the details after reading the transcripts, he could move to send it back it to the Commission. Meantime, Brereton asked if it could be tabled with the other ordinance while the council receives and reads the transcripts. The council agreed, with Alderman Mark Sanderson voting against it.
This Belvidere Daily Republican article is available on-line at: http://www.belvideredailyrepublican.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6764:belvidere-council-tables-upcoming-church-expansion-plans&catid=106:belvidere&Itemid=508
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