Herndon Town Council Approves New Church In Local Office Building

Herndon VA

24 February, 2021

2:34 PM

Description

HERNDON, VA — The Herndon Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve Christ Fellowship Church's application to install a church in two suites in the Parkway Crossing office condominiums on Herndon Parkway. The council also approved Christ Fellowship's request for a special exception to the town's zoning ordinance. This was required because the use of the facility could present a disturbance to the surrounding community. In its proposal, Christ Fellowship was seeking to occupy 3,400 square feet in two office suites on the first floor of the building located at 459 Herndon Parkway. The suites are already interconnected and will not require any alterations, according to staff documents. With the council's approval, the church is now able to go ahead with its plans to purchase the suites from their current owner, HLI Group, LLC.. The sanctuary, as proposed by the applicant, includes 44 seats and occupies the largest space within the combined suite. The remaining space includes two offices, a conference room, a playroom, a multipurpose room, a kitchenette, restrooms, storage room, and a mechanical room. Occupancy at any one time would be limited to 44 people, excluding staff and volunteers. The parking lot for the Parkway Crossing office condominiums offers 136 shared spaces for its tenants. The two suites the church is planning to occupy are allowed the use of 11 parking spots. The zoning ordinance requires a minimum of one space for every four sanctuary seats for a religious institution, so the 11 spots would be sufficient for the church under the ordinance. During their deliberations, some council members questioned whether 11 parking spaces would be sufficient, especially if it was a growing church. David Stromberg, zoning administrator, pointed out that Christ Fellowship was restricted by the bylaws of the Parkway Crossing Condo Association, which would allow the church only 11 parking spaces. No matter what the council's interest might be in adding more parking spaces, it was only empowered to ensure that the parking met what was allowable under the zoning ordnance. A condo association could enforce rules that were more stringent than what the zoning allowed. In its original application, Christ Fellowship had asked for more parking spaces but faced opposition from the condo association. Walter Hamilton, pastor of Christ Fellowship, told the council Tuesday he and the association had agreed that 11 spaces would be enough for the church. "The reason that we agreed to go with their parking requirements is two-fold," he said. "Number one, we're a small church. On the books, we probably have about 50 members and that might be a little generous. We think that space will accommodate our membership pretty well with some growth potential. And the second thing, we also see the fact that we would have very little impact." Hamilton said he worked full-time doing site-review planning for Fairfax County Land Development Services, so he is familiar with the special exception process. "We realized that it's better to be a good neighbor," he said. "So we agreed to accept their parking requirement and the space that was associated with that." After the public hearing was closed, Councilmember Signe Friedrichs made a motion to accept the proposal, and Councilmember Sean Regan seconded the motion. The council voted 7-0 to approve.