The new St. James Church will be very big—you can almost “bank” on it

The new church will be taller than the Alpine Bank,  the tallest building in the downtown Belvidere area.

Here is the Alpine Bank Building it is 54 feet tall. It is the tallest building in the downtown area.  St. James will be 70 feet tall and 50 feet on the sidewalls. St. James’ height is calculated from ground level which is four to five feet higher than the street level.  The glossy drawing shows many steps—the 50 feet and 70 feet is the height at the entrance.  Thus the comparison with the bank is incorrect in that the bank is built close to street height and the church has 4-5 more feet of height from the street.

Note the large set backs and tall trees on the bank property.  The new church will build up to the public sidewalk.  The church is requesting variances for increased height, reduced set backs and undersized green space and increased building footprint.

   

 

 

At the bottom right is the baptistry (#4 on the diagram below) .  The wall outside the baptistry will be on the lot line.  Side steps to the front and back of the church are only a few feet from that line.

Below is a picture of the old St. James convent which will be torn down for this projject .  The baptisrtry will be on the side walk edge on the left of the photo.  The peak of the chuch will be approximately equal to the very tops of the trees with 50 feet high walls just 14 feet from the sidewalk.