Church request gets county blessing

PANAMA CITY In front of a nearly full auditorium, and despite several protests, Bay County commissioners agreed Tuesday to abandon public rights of way associated with two Hiland Park alleys.

The decision clears the way for Hiland Park Baptist Church to break ground Sunday on a $7.9 million expansion.

About 150 people, most from the church, attended the public hearing. The churchs attorney, Nevin Zimmerman, and pastor, Steven Kyle, said the church has been looking to expand for almost a decade, but the project was put on hold because of the economy. The church has 2,000 members and is building a sanctuary with seating for 1,575 people. The congregation already has contributed $1.5 million to the expansion, according to church officials.

We dont have room for everyone, which is a great, great problem to have, Kyle said. We have followed every code and every requirement to date. We believe weve done everything exactly as required by law.

While both alleyways are surrounded by church property, they have served as an entrance and exit for three area property owners. The church offered a permanent easement to the owners, and commissioners required it as a condition of approving the abandonment. The easement would run through the church parking lot and between two stormwater ponds.

What we have here is a Walmart-sized project being squeezed into a neighborhood of small homes on 50-foot lots with little, and in some cases no, communication with the neighbors. The only difference is Ive never saw Walmart leave a house in their parking lot surrounded by stormwater ponds, neighbor Lee Clements said.

Other property owners said they were worried about the safety of driving through a construction zone and then a parking lot and others were concerned about what would happen if the stormwater ponds failed to contain runoff caused by the paved parking lots.

Those ponds are going to overflow and all the water is coming down on us right there, said Bishop Jordan Williams Jr., of Trinity International Outreach Ministries.

Williams suggested the church buy out adjacent property owners, but executive Pastor Carl Fondren said the church was not interested in buying the properties because they were not necessary to accomplish the churchs plan.

Most of the speakers praised the churchs good works in the area but complained they had not been consulted on the expansion plans that will have a significant impact on their neighborhood and they asked commissioners to postpone deciding on the rights of way until community meetings were held to work out differences.

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Church request gets county blessing