Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene: “Sports Partner Becoming More Religious”

Many issues still need to be addressed
A focus group meeting for neighbors living in the immediate vicinity of the church took place at the Oro Valley Town Hall on October 24 regarding the proposed rezoning to accommodate a mega sports complex of the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene (“OVCN”). If approved by the town, this complex will forever change the character of one of Oro Valley’s original neighborhoods. 

Also in attendance were Councilmembers Mo Greene (who is a member of the OVCN congregation) and Tim Bohen.

One of the key issues raised by those who oppose the project is the status of the company with whom OVCN plans to partner. That partner, Upward Sports, is a “non profit” organization that appears to be a profit-making business, using “religion” to promote their sports business.

OVCN Pastor Collins: Upward Sports is returning to its religious mission
At the beginning of the meeting, Pastor Collins discussed the partnership between OVCN and Upward Sports. It appears that Upward Sports and the churches with whom they partner are building facilities under the banner of non-profit status and then later selling those facilities for financial gain. This came to light recently when it was learned, as reported in LOVE, that Upward Sports was selling their huge sports venue facility in Spartanburg, NC for $41 million dollars.

Pastor Collins said that Upward Sports provides services to churches that are looking to do Sports Ministry. The “partnership” means that OVCN contracts with them to provide those services for a fee that the church pays. 

Collins claimed that the real reason that Upwards Sports was selling their facility in Spartanburg, NC was because they are reverting back to the type of organization/ministry that they originally were – supporting churches who want to run sports leagues in their communities. 

Collins said that “the result of that vision and mission realignment is that they are attempting to sell their current sports venues and they will do so at a tremendous financial loss to the ministry.” However, later in the meeting one of the neighbors noted that, “Upward Sports might be having a little trouble right now, but their net income in 2021 was about $35 million dollars and that’s from their website.”

Managing traffic… lighting blight… view shed… noise mitigation… all on the table

The partnership with Upward Sports is not the only issue that those who oppose the project have raised. There are other issues.  Paul Oland of Paradigm Land Design (representing the church) addressed some of these issues at the meeting.
Traffic
Oland said they are still working through “a couple of technical details” with Town staff, but the bottom line is that:

“The goal the Town has given them is to prove that the traffic will not be made worse and that they will be mitigating any impacts that they are doing…and one of the key components to achieving that goal is not to have overlapping activities. So if there is an activity on the activity field (e.g. soccer practice) it wouldn’t happen at the same time as a church service.”

Oland claimed that the surrounding streets have the capacity to accommodate this development and that the big building on the south end would have a center turn lane constructed on Calle Concordia.
Lighting
Oland said their lighting consultant has modeled the proposed field and the lighting to meet the Town’s stringent lighting guidelines and that Oro Valley’s lighting consultant came up with a list requirements that results in “near darkness right at the property line.”
Views
Oland said the main building is tucked into the SE corner of the site against the wash with CDO behind it. The field is in the north and the only tall elements in the field are the poles which he admitted will be visible from some neighboring properties.
Noise Mitigation

Their acoustical consultant modeled the site several different ways and made recommendations. What they found is that “the installation of two 8 foot screen walls will control the additional sound that’s expected to be generated by these facilities down to accordance within Town Code in terms of impacts to surrounding neighbors.”
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Wednesday: Town Staff Seeks Common Ground On OVCN Sports Complex… Residents Say “No!”