The Bill of Rights ensures Christ Church Anglican members the freedom to worship.
Different documents dictate where the congregation can build its place of worship, though.
The Rev. Marc Robertson and his flock intend to build a new sanctuary on the corner of Drayton and 37th streets. Neighbors and other Thomas Square residents opposed to the church’s plans are arguing the mid-city rezoning ordinance prohibits the facility being built as proposed.
Six East 36th Street residents, the back of whose homes sit across the lane from Christ Church Anglican’s proposed site, have appealed a Zoning Board of Appeals decision on three granted variances.
Chatham County Superior Court Judge Michael Karpf will hear motions on the appeal at 2 p.m. Monday. The appeal was initially filed on May 28.
Christ Church Anglican is currently homeless. The 300-plus member congregation has utilized Independent Presbyterian Church’s sanctuary for services since vacating their long-time facility, Christ Church Episcopal on Johnson Square, in December 2011.
The group was part of Christ Church’s larger congregation until March 2006 when they broke away from the Episcopal Church citing “profound and irreconcilable theological differences.” They later aligned themselves with Anglican diocese in Africa.
Those Christ Church members not part of the splinter faction attended services at another local Episcopal parish. They reclaimed the downtown sanctuary once the Georgia Supreme Court ruled it belonged to the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and Robertson’s group departed.
Christ Church Anglican’s leadership began planning and fundraising for a new campus even before being forced out. They looked at many potential sites, according to Robertson, and were drawn to the Thomas Square location because “historically and culturally we are a city church.”
The site plan and church design stretch the limits of the Mid-City Rezoning ordinance, however. The appeal’s objective, according to Julia Sullivan, an attorney for one of the plantiffs, is to have the Zoning Board of Appeals follow the Mid-City Zoning ordinance.
Adopted in 2005, the laws were written to maintain the historic nature of portions of the Thomas Square, Metropolitan and Baldwin Park neighborhoods. Those areas were first developed in the late-1800s.
Citing the ordinance, the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission staff recommended the zoning board deny two of three variance requests the board ultimately granted.
Yet in reviewing the Christ Church Anglican case, staff acknowledged the mid-city rezoning ordinance was written to address residential development and does not take into account potential institutional uses, such as a church.
“While the overall intent was to maintain the scale of area, the mid-city ordinance doesn’t appear to have the flexiblity to address issues like the church, thus the zoning board was the right body to make a ruling in this case,” MPC Executive Director Tom Thomson said. “We know we need to do an ordinance update and better define these kind of outlier issues.”
But the plaintiff’s attorney, Sullivan, argues the rule “is what it is at this stage.
“If they see gaps or problems it is up to them to revisit the ordinance and then proceed from that point,” Sullivan said. “For now, those are the rules that are going to have to be applied.”
The church’s plans call for a makeover of two-thirds of the 100 block of East 37th. The sanctuary, parish hall and the existing structure on the property, the historic Merriwicke House, will cover more than half the 23,000-square-foot lot and will face Drayton instead of 37th Street as do other surrounding structures.
The design creates accessibility issues, both in terms of parking and pick-up and drop-off points. The alley running along the north side of the property would provide access to 10 parking spots and act as the main pick-up and drop-off route.
The appeal seizes on these points. All six of the plaintiffs in the appeal live in residences that border on this lane, which is currently an unpaved and rarely used service road. The church’s plans would be detrimental to the 36th Street residents quality of life and property values, the neighbors argue.
Christ Church Anglican’s representatives told the zoning board the alley was once a street, known as Dekalb Street, and is 30 feet wide. Once paved, the lane could handle traffic, attorney Philip McCorkle argued.
The notion was thoroughly debated by the board, and the plaintiffs claim in the appeal the board never resolved the issue of whether 36th was a dirt lane or a street that could handle traffic.
The plaintiffs also assert the zoning board’s decision was based on other “erroneous facts” and the board failed to consider the mid-city rezoning ordinance’s neighborhood design standards.
“In essence, the board did not base its decision upon either correct facts or any documentation,” the plaintiffs’ appeal states.
Christ Church Anglican’s Robertson continues to maintain the church’s goal is to be a benefit, not a detriment, to the neighborhood. The thoughts he shared after the April zoning board meeting — that the church hopes “to make new friends” of the Thomas Square residents — still stand, he wrote in an email last week.
“We are awaiting the hearing prayerfully, and we’ll see where we go from there,” Robertson wrote.