A 10-year struggle by parishioners of The Life Church of Hailey to build a church north of Albertsons supermarket on the edge of the city came to yet another standoff Tuesday evening, when the church's application for annexation into the city of Hailey faced stiff opposition from neighboring landowners.
The P&Z application for a 6,000-square-foot church has been before the commission twice already, and represents a two-thirds reduction in size from a church proposed by the same congregation in 1997. At issue is the remaining 9.6 acres of land near Albertsons. That land would also be rezoned from county Residential-1 to Transitional city zoning, thereby increasing the development density and potential uses on the remaining property. R-1 allows for only one residence per acre on the property.
"We are going to build a church one way or another," said Janine Bear, a member of the church for the past 14 years. "It is our passion. We'd like to do it in the city."
Bear said she represents 180 parishioners from The Life Church, which currently congregates on Main Street between Spruce and Silver Streets in Hailey.
Neighboring landowners were equally passionate in their rebuttal of Bear's claims that the city should annex the property and ease the church's difficulty in obtaining septic permits. They said the property has been poorly managed by members, who have been known to squat there, light bonfires and occasionally hold revival meetings featuring loud music and portable satellite radio transmission stations.
"When we moved here we knew there would only be 10 residential lots in this area," said adjoining property owner Doug Fenn. "Letting this go through changes our life in a big way."
The land planner for the church, John Gaeddert, said his clients were already denied a septic permit by the county.
He suggested the property remaining after Phase 1 of church construction could be developed as office space alongside Marketron to the south. Annexation to Transitional city zoning would allow for this, or up to 14 residential housing units alongside the church.
Hailey planning staff will research the possibility of providing city services to the property without annexation before the next review of the application next month. A last-minute extension of the proceedings was called for by church representatives as the commission was voicing its unanimous disapproval of the annexation, due in large part to the vague plans the church has for developing the surrounding land.
"I think it is wrong to use a church as an excuse for commercial development," said nearby landowner Tina Cole.
Doug Walton, Sandy Kelly and other neighboring landowners expressed opposition to the church's plans, citing a surplus of commercial space in the city core already.
Suzy Sander said, "Since we moved here, we've seen Marketron; we've seen Albertsons, and now this."
Church pastor Michael Hendricks said after the proceedings that his congregation has the resources to build the 300-person church right now but would have to develop the remaining land in order to continue with Phase 2, which would house another 350 faithful.
"We want to be good neighbors,' he said, "But they have to decide if they want offices and commercial development or houses on the remaining property."
The Hailey P&Z will revisit the matter March 19.
