Since worship began with four people in 1980, the Peninsula Pentecostals have grown to “well over 500 members,” according to its lead pastor, and that is why it wants to build a 130,000-square-foot building capable of seating up to 2,400 people in Grove.
The pastor was joined by senior church officials and about 50 congregants Wednesday at a James City County Planning Commission meeting, where it sought the blessing of the commissioners for the 40.3-acre site in Grove proposed as its home to be rezoned from industrial to mixed use.
But a majority of the commissioners did not provide their blessing.
The commissioners voted 4-3 to recommend the board of supervisors reject the application for several reasons, including the need to preserve the county’s limited developable industrial land for industrial uses, the proximity of a gas station in the proposal to the Skiffes Creek Reservoir and a belief that the application to rezone the land lacks enough details to proceed.
The site is located at 8930, 8940 and 8950 Pocahontas Trail, across the street from Greenmount Industrial Park and near Skiffes Creek and the Newport News city line.
The commissioners who voted in favor of the application — Robin Bledsoe (Jamestown), George Drummond (Roberts) and John Wright (At-Large) — said the church was a better use of the land than an industrial project, citing its proximity to existing residential neighborhoods.
“I feel that it would have a more positive impact on our community,” Drummond said. “It’s a shame that a church has to go through all of this to get approval.”
Bledsoe said she was confident in county staff’s ability to make sure the land developed properly despite the belief expressed by Commissioners Tim O’Connor (At-Large), Heath Richardson (Stonehouse) and Christopher Basic (Berkeley) that the application was missing details.
The dissenting commissioners said that while the application had plenty of detail about the church, it offered little information about up to 30,000 square feet of commercial space — including the proposed gas station — it wants to build on the land along with the church.
“I think [the lack of detail is inconsistent] with how we progress as a community and with land planning in all of America really,” Basic said, noting he believes the church is an excellent use for the land. “It’s on the path for me. I think it can be approved, but not just yet.”
Commissioner Rich Krapf, the fourth no vote, said he believes the project is not consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan, which guides land use. He pointed to language in the plan identifying the proposed church site as a place where industrial development should be encouraged to keep the land consistent with the adjoining Greenmount Industrial Park.
The commissioners vote came after about an hour of remarks from church officials and congregants, who pleaded with the commissioners to support the project. They said they have experienced a range of positive life changes since beginning worship at Peninsula Pentecostals.
“The needs of our spiritual lives have been met there,” David Green said. “There have been great transformations in my family and in many other families.”
The congregants repeatedly referred to their fellow members of Peninsula Pentecostals as family. Several expressed gratitude for how the church has affected their personal lives and those of their families.
“The lonely have found a family, and we believe healthy people make a healthy community,” Lead Pastor Jared Arango said. “We ask you that you allow us to fulfill the vision that God has given us.”
Arango said the church has helped people overcome substance abuse issues and that it has reunited family members. He said the congregation has been blessed by God and that it has a vision to grow in James City County.
The vision for the church contained in the application to the county calls for a 130,000-square-foot building capable of seating up to 2,400 people.
The building would also house a daycare center, where up to 150 children would be enrolled and a Family Life Center with room for church activities.
Elsewhere on the property, known as the Kirby Tract, the plans call for a utility building and multi-purpose fields.
That vision has followed a long road to reach Wednesday’s commission meeting. Tim Trant, a Kaufman & Canoles attorney representing the church, said the application is a chance for the county to “do the right thing” after the journey the church has taken to reach this point.
The proposal to build the church was first brought to the county in 2013. Peninsula Pentecostals had by then outgrown its location in Newport News and settled on the land in Grove as its preferred site for a new church.
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. But in August 2013, the supervisors voted to amend the county’s zoning ordinance to remove houses of worship and meeting places as acceptable uses of industrially zoned land.
“Two years after proposing to build a new church on this property, we are not celebrating the ribbon cutting on a new sanctuary,” he said. “We are before you humbly requesting your support on a rezoning application.”
But for the county staff tasked with reviewing rezoning proposals, the application to rezone the land has several problems. The planners cited the church’s proposed location on industrially zoned land in the county’s Enterprise Zone — a zone set to expire at the end of this year which confers special privileges on industry to spur development — as a problem, noting “staff does not find this development proposal consistent with the [vision for the area outlined in the county’s Comprehensive Plan].”
Other concerns raised by the planners include how the project would affect a proposed road that would link Pocahontas Trail with Route 143, how it would affect traffic on Pocahontas Trail on Sundays and the loss of developable industrially zoned land, which is limited.
Trant said the land, which is currently used for farming, has been on the market as an industrial site for at least 25 years. He said the church would work well as a buffer between industrial developments to the south of Pocahontas Trail and the residential neighborhoods to the north.
He also used his allotted time at Wednesday’s meeting to speak to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into James City County. The investigation was opened last year and sought to determine whether the county violated a federal civil rights law when it rezoned the land and effectively barred the church from being built as a matter of right. DOJ did not respond to a request for comment from WYDaily on the status of the investigation.
Trant denied he or the church had any involvement in spurring the Department of Justice investigation, which he said arose after department staffers read media reports of the church’s past effort to move to James City County.
The application will go before the board of supervisors next month, at which point another public hearing will be held prior to the supervisors’ vote.
Related Coverage:
- Newport News Church Renews Effort to Move to Grove
- 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
