The second Neighborhood Meeting regarding the Church of the Nazarene rezoning request was held in Town Council Chambers on Monday, March 28th. The church property is on 27 acres at the NE corner of Calle Concordia and Calle Buena Vista. A fact-sheet provided by the church states that the church recently acquired an additional 10 acres northeast of the existing building on which they want to expand to broaden the outreach of their youth sports programs.
The existing zoning designation is for religious facilities and private schools. The church wants to rezone to a Planned Area Development (PAD) to construct new buildings and athletic facilities (including an outdoor athletic field with 70-foot tall lights), and an outdoor amphitheater.
The adjacent homes on Calle Buena Vista are zoned R1-144 (rural residential on minimum lot sizes of 144,000 square feet or 3.3 acres). As such, the neighbors are opposed to this rezoning which would drastically change the character of their rural residential neighborhood. I have been informed that, prior to this meeting, several neighbors had met with the pastor only to be frustrated and disappointed with the conversations.
The congregation packed the council chambers
At 6 PM there was a standing room only crowd with approximately 150 people inside the council chambers and approximately 50-75 people standing outside the door in the courtyard listening to the meeting over a courtyard speaker. My hunch (which you will soon see was correct) was that this crowd was made up mostly of the church’s congregation who had packed the room in order to overwhelm and drown out any dissenting views. This scene looked eerily familiar to me. I had flashbacks to when the “Green Shirts” packed every neighborhood meeting during the town’s discussions on possibly closing one or all of the town-owned golf courses. And in doing so, they drowned out all views that did not align with theirs.
Those in the courtyard, including myself and my husband, could hear the presentation but could not see the slide presentation on the screen which made it difficult to follow the proceedings. It was also cold and windy in the courtyard and not conducive to standing there for what was scheduled to be a 90 minute meeting. We left after 20 minutes.
It was an enlightening 20 minutes
While we were there, Pastor Collins (the executive pastor and second in command) spoke about how he came from a broken home and that he had two focuses in life…sports and God. Apparently, these are the two things that saved him and led to the church’s philosophy of saving others using the same approach of “sports and God.”
When he finished his speech, which was all about his testimony to God and nothing about the needs for the rezoning, there was thunderous applause from both inside and outside the council chambers. Yes, my hunch was correct. The congregation had packed the chambers.
Concerns of the adjacent residents
The following day I spoke with a resident who lives near the church whose property will be severely impacted by this rezoning and expansion. He informed me that none of the speakers from the congregation spoke about the issues at hand, but instead used their 3 minutes each to give testimonies to Christ.
In contrast, when the neighbors spoke at the podium, each one spoke on a different topic that was actually relevant to the proceedings. These topics were: Overview, traffic issues, lighting, noise issues, drainage, cost vs. revenue, and changing the character of the neighborhood.
Impression
The impression expressed by some in attendance was that the beliefs of the church’s pastors and congregation leave no room for negotiation as they, and only they, are properly connected to God. I didn’t even stay for the entire meeting (which ran 2 hours) but that was also my impression after just 20 minutes of observations.
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Diane Peters has lived in Oro Valley since 2003, moving here to escape the humidity of the East Coast. She’s been involved in OV politics and development issues since 2006, including organizing a citizens group in 2014 that spent 9 months negotiating a controversial 200-acre development project. In her past life, she worked in medical research at various University Hospitals in New England. Her interests include reading, writing, nature photography, travel, art galleries, museums, and politics.
