A Newport News church seeking to build a new church on Pocahontas Trail near the Walmart Distribution Center has restarted the process after a bid last year was halted by James City County officials due to zoning problems.
Peninsula Pentecostals is currently located off Warwick Boulevard in the Jenkins section of Newport News. The church, which consists of about 500 members with an extended congregation of about 1,100 members, has outgrown that location and now seeks a new spot in a location central to its parishioners.
That new location ended up being the Grove site near the distribution center, where James City County and Newport News meet. For the new location to come to fruition, church officials have started a process to rezone the land from its current industrial designation to a mixed-use designation, a label that permits churches and public meeting spaces.
The church’s attorney, Tim Trant of Kaufman & Canoles, filed the rezoning application July 31 for about 40 acres of land near the distribution center.
The rezoning application comes after a protracted dispute between the church and the county over whether the church could be built on industrially zoned land. Church officials signed a contract to purchase the land in March 2013 and approached the county the following month with its plans.
County officials told the church the new church building and daycare were allowed by right in industrial zones under the zoning ordinance’s wording at the time. That wording was the result of an overhaul of the county’s zoning ordinance in 2012, at which point houses of worship and meeting spaces were erroneously added to the list of acceptable uses for industrial land.
Church officials then tried to press forward with developing the church on the land. Then County Administrator Robert Middaugh told WYDaily in a June 2013 interview the church’s application was “a signal to me that we have a problem in the ordinance that we need to go look at.”
County officials drafted changes to the county’s industrial designation, discarding about 40 uses and adding 20 others. Right after an August 2013 public hearing when 19 people spoke in support of the church’s plans to expand into Grove, the James City County Board of Supervisors voted to amend the ordinances to correct the problems, removing houses of worship and meeting places as an acceptable use in industrially zoned areas.
At the August 2013 board meeting, the supervisors all said they would be supportive of at least hearing a case for rezoning the land. The matter was then dormant until the application was filed by Trant last week.
During a Wednesday call from WYDaily to the church’s administration, questions were referred to Trant, who did not respond to a request for comment.
If the supervisors elect to approve the rezoning, development on the land would be governed by a master plan. Minor tweaks to the master plan would be possible, but otherwise any development on the land would have to follow the guidelines outlined in the plan.
In the master plan filed with the rezoning application, church officials expressed a willingness not to build apartments, group homes, independent living homes, single-family homes, multi-family homes, group quarters or home care facilities on the land. With the exception of group homes for nine or more adults, which require a special-use permit on mixed use land, those other uses are all allowed by right on mixed-use land.
Mixed-use land also allows dozens of other uses by right, including commercial, industrial and utilities. An environmental impact study submitted to the county by Trant on behalf of the church describes the proposed development, which would feature a church on the northern end of the property near Morning Star Baptist Church. The land would transition to a mix of commercial development on the southern portions of the land, opposite the industrial park where the distribution center is located.
In 2013, church officials indicated they wanted to build senior housing, a convenience store and possibly a gas station. The latest documents filed with the county do not indicate the nature of any potential commercial development at the site.
The documents do describe the church building, identifying a sanctuary and primary worship area along with classrooms, a nursery, administrative office, music and choir rooms, an indoor recreation center and gym, meeting rooms, a kitchen and reception hall and outdoor recreation areas including playgrounds, picnic areas, walking trails and ball fields.
A square footage for the church and any other buildings connected to the project are not specified in the documents.
Church officials submitted conceptual plans to the county in June 2013 outlining what they hoped to build on the property at that time, which included a 129,750 square foot church with space for 2,400 congregants. That proposal also calls for 480 parking spaces wrapping around part of the building along with a 7,200 square foot garage and a daycare capable of accommodating up to 115 children.
The rezoning application comes weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice began an investigation into the way the county conducted the zoning changes that erased houses of worship and meeting spaces as acceptable uses in industrially zoned land. DOJ is working to determine if the county violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, a federal law prohibiting municipalities from treating religious groups different from non-religious groups when altering zoning regulations.
A June 17 letter from Steven Rosenbaum, the DOJ’s chief of housing and civil enforcements, requested information from the county connected to the zoning change. In the letter, Rosenbaum characterized the investigation as “preliminary in nature,” noting no determination has been made as to whether the county violated RLUIPA.
County Attorney Leo Rogers said Wednesday the information “and then some” has been provided to DOJ.
A DOJ spokesperson did not return a request for comment.
Related Coverage:
- U.S. Department of Justice Investigates James City County for Possible Religious Rights Violation
- JCC Supes Vote to Change Zoning Ordinance; Churches No Longer Allowed in Industrial Areas
- Citizens Send Letters, Petition in Support of Church Plan to Expand to JCC Industrial Area
- JCC Supervisors to Consider Preventing Churches in Industrial Areas
- JCC EDA Supports Not Allowing Churches in Industrial Areas
- JCC EDA Asked to Take a Position in Proposed Industrial Zoning Changes
- JCC Planning Commission Recommends Allowing Churches on Industrial Land
- Newport News Church Submits Plan to Build Almost 130K Square-Foot Building in JCC Industrial Land
- Newport News Church Prompted Part of Proposed Changes to JCC Zoning Rules
- JCC Proposed Zoning Changes Draw Opposition from Newport News Church
