Church of God gets approval to turn properties into parking lots
Moose Jaw’s Church of God is exploding at the seams with people and needs to expand its building to continue to run its programs and provide a suitable space for worship.
To accommodate a future expansion, though, the church would have to use valuable parking space on its current lot. It would then have to find additional parking on nearby properties.
It solved that problem by purchasing two lots —at 73 Hochelaga Street East and 630 First Avenue Northeast — from Jones Funeral Home on March 20, and intends to demolish the residential one-unit dwellings and private trees on those properties and construct parking lots. However, the municipality must give permission due to zoning requirements.
During its April 27 regular meeting, city council voted 4-3 to give Moose Jaw Church of God discretionary approval to turn the two properties into parking lots, with the church to bear all project costs. Mayor Fraser Tolmie and councillors Chris Warren, Dawn Luhning and Heather Eby were in favour, while councillors Crystal Froese, Scott McMann and Brian Swanson were opposed. City administration had recommended that council deny approval since the project did not meet specific criteria in the downtown Local Area Plan and the Official Community Plan, while there were already many underused spaces available in the area. Council voted 4-3 against that motion.
Participating via video link, Church of God’s Craig Matt explained the church has been part of the community since 1943 and has resided at 50 Hochelaga Street East since 1985.
The church has grown in the last two decades, and in 2010, it added more space to accommodate that increased attendance. However, Matt noted that was a Band-Aid solution and the building is now bursting with 650 to 750 members.
One of its community programs, Born to Dance, has roughly 300 underprivileged children who participate. “We are one of the largest churches in Moose Jaw operating in a medium-sized building … ,” he said. “We believe with extra parking and an addition on the church, our congregation would grow by 200 to 300 people.” A building committee has looked at purchasing a building but found most are too small, while it would be too expensive to build a new structure.
Church of God has worked with its neighbours to address its parking issues, Matt said. Congregants can park at places such as KFC, Rexall Drugs, Jones Funeral Home, and empty lots in the area. However, that is not ideal, since members have had to move their vehicles at inopportune times, such as during weddings.
Since the community uses the building almost every day, Matt noted people like to meet beforehand for coffee or supper, which provides an economic boost to the downtown. More parking would likely bring more people to the area and be a “solid win for our city.”
“I support Church of God and all the great work you’re doing there, especially the Born to Dance program,” said Eby, pointing out the amount of activity proves church happens more than once a week.
Churches were built downtown years ago, but by the 1980s and 1990s, they had moved to the outskirts, she added. Now churches are moving back to the heart of the community, which she thinks is great since people will live downtown.
Swanson was not in favour of turning two tax-paying properties into locations that did not pay taxes. He also pointed out two nearby neighbours wrote letters against the proposed projects.
“I appreciate the difficulties the church is experiencing, but I do not see converting more of this area into parking lots as in the best interests of the city,” he added. In November 2016 council passed a similar motion to allow Victory Church to expand its parking, said Tolmie. He didn’t want to see “any religious wars” occur even though parking is an issue. Council has helped Church of God in the past, while this is a last-ditch attempt to address those concerns.