Many changes occurred this past week that will have a significant impact on our future as a church, even if we have yet to see the result of those changes. As a matter of fact, it may be months or years before we see any concrete outcomes. This is obvious in the election outcomes as the impact of the past four years of chaos and failures will have a lasting effect. Still, we can be hopeful of new policies that will minimize damages caused by incompetence. Political changes will change how we fight for justice.
The recent progress we made in the development process will have a greater impact on the church moving forward. We have received permission from both denominations to enter into a License Agreement with developers from both denominations. This will allow the development company to apply for the permits to move two fourplexes on to our property.
To be clear, the agreement only allows the developer to apply for permits with the city, county, and other governmental agencies as our agent, nothing more. This is not a contract to move, demolish, or remodel buildings but rather only permits to do so. We are still working on gathering the necessary information to apply for permits with several governmental agencies, and by working with developers, we utilize their expertise in navigating the process. We anticipate that it may take up to 6 months to get the permits. We are hoping quicker, but with the pandemic, nothing is certain anymore. Once we receive permits, we have another round of approvals with PCUSA and UMC to get a contract signed before doing any actual work.
While we will not see a new building on-site any time soon, this development is still significant. We are at least moving forward. But even as developers are working on permits, we will start our discussions about the design of our building as soon as we get a drawing from our architect. I will continue to keep you updated as we progress.
Pastor Sunny
