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Board okays preschool building for church

The Board of Adjustment approved Faith United Presbyterian's plans despite some opposition.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published January 23, 2005

SEMINOLE - A county board gave Faith United Presbyterian Church permission to construct a classroom building despite neighbors' concerns about traffic and lack of privacy.

The Board of Adjustment decision came after the church took plans for a picnic pavilion and chapel off the drawing board.

Board members will also require the church to provide buffering to the west and north of the property for neighbors who want it.

Faith United Presbyterian, 11501 Walker Ave., is in the Oakhurst Shores neighborhood in the unincorporated Seminole area. With about 800 members, it has several active ministries including a preschool.

The church wanted Pinellas County's permission to expand by building the preschool, which runs from about 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and has 80-90 children, according to Marvin Merrill, the head of the church's building committee. The plans submitted to the county also showed a planned picnic pavilion and a new chapel.

The proposed pavilion and chapel were not immediate plans, Merrill said.

"We don't have any plans to build a chapel in the next 3,4, 5 years, depending on our finances," he told the BOA. "We have no plans to build (the pavilion) in the near future."

He agreed to remove those plans from consideration. If the church wants to build either, it must come back before the county for permission.

The withdrawal of the pavilion and chapel did not calm the fears of two neighbors who worried about the preschool's impact on traffic in an already congested area.

"The last four or five years, we have experienced a very decided increase in the traffic," Lawrence Barrett said. "It isn't only on Sundays, it's also during the week."

Only two streets go in and out of the subdivision, he said. Those roads serve about 700 homes as well as the church. At times, Barrett said, the traffic is so bad he could not get out of his driveway if he had to.

"Traffic is becoming just impossible," Barrett said. If the church is allowed to expand, that could make a bad situation worse.

"When it expands, it's really going to mess up the traffic," he said.

Another neighbor, Mark Panuthos, reminded the board that the church had already been granted several variances.

The church, he said, has not lived up to its promises to put screening between nearby residences and its parking area. Sometimes, people park so close to the property line that there is virtually no protection for nearby private property.

Panuthos also worried about the fate of large oak trees on the church property.

"I cannot help but worry that continued growth will drive my family and me from our home," Panuthos said.

[Last modified January 23, 2005, 00:14:21]