Church application rejected

Press, 11 February 1981, Page 6

Church application rejected

The ...Waimairi County Council ’has . declined to allow the Elim Pentecostal Church, Grahams Road, to expand on to a neighbouring site by building a 350-seat auditorium to accommodate the church’s rapidly expanding congregation.

The council declined to approve the application 'last week because it considered that. the auditorium would be too overbearing for the site and because on-site been refused and that (the

council had still not told him about the decision yesterday. The church had had to expand twice in the last 12 months because the rapidly growing congregation overflowed the Grahams Road building. A second church had opened at Hornby in April and now had a fulltime pastor. That did not relieve the pressure on the Elim Church, and six months ago the unused Methodist church building., on Main North Road, Belfast, was borrowed for midweek services. But a fortnight, ago, the congregation had grown to the extent that Sunday services were nbw held, Mr tegg said.

The new auditorium was essential to bring the church’s scattered congregation together for Sunday services, especially as the Methodist church building could not be borrowed indefinitely, he said/ The church had planned to remove a house on the adjoining site at 195 Grahams Road and build an octagonal church with a roof of tinted glass rising front each side.

“We felt we were adding to the culture of the area by building a different building,” Mr Legg said. He could accept that the building was overdeveloped for the site as it had exceeded building restrictions. He said there would not have been a traffic problem as parking was, available on the front of the adjacent Waimairi Cemetery, said Mr Legg. The council had wanted the church to do $BOO worth of landscaping, which the church had been willing,) to exceed. '

: The landscaping would have meant no” room for parking. The council suggested that another submission for a building seating about 200 people and providing on-site parking for about 20 cars would be considered more parking . would ; be inadequate. The church’s pastor, the Rev. K. A. Legg, said he was extremely disappointed that the application had favourably.

Mr Legg said that the church would submit a new proposal for a slightly modified building, of traditional design, which would probably connect with the exist-

ing church by sliding glass doors. The .combined seating would be for about 300, the new auditorium providing 200 of the seats.