St. Peter’s Lutheran Church has received approval from the city to temporarily use a nearby gravel area for parking as the church builds a new community recreation center near Fourth and Chestnut streets.
A hearing officer for the Columbus Board of Zoning Appeals has given St. Peter’s permission to allow employees to temporarily use a gravel area at the northwest corner of Second and Sycamore streets for parking.
Normally, local ordinances only allow the use of these types of temporary parking facilities for two months. But with the hearing officer’s approval, the gravel lot can be utilized for up to 10 months, which church leaders say will be the length of the construction process.
Teachers and staff have been parking where the $5.5 million multi-purpose recreational facility will be built east of the church and school complex at 719 Fifth St.
The only condition from the hearing officer requires that physical barriers — such as bumpers, jersey barriers or temporary posts with chains — be placed at least 10 feet back from the curb along Second Street.
Under state law, the city is required to keep all parked cars at least 10 feet away from the Indiana Department of Transportation’s right of way. That includes Second Street, which is also State Road 46.
While that helps staff and teachers temporarily, another parking dilemma for St. Peters remains unresolved.
In early April, church leaders asked members of the Columbus City Council to table action to create a permanent parking lot. In order to create space for that lot, St. Peters had been seeking permission to demolish three unoccupied homes on the south side of Fourth Street, extending east from Sycamore Street.
But their request was forward from the Columbus Plan Commission to the City Council on March 13 without any recommendation as to whether it should be approved.
Due to a variety of concerns that included preserving affordable downtown housing, plan commission members said they could not reach a consensus regarding the request.
While the city council agreed to table the request, the church was informed they had until June 11 to bring the matter back to the council. If the request was not placed back on the agenda by then, it would be automatically denied.
A denial means the church must wait a year before bringing it back to the plan commission to start the process all over again unless there is a change in the request or circumstances surrounding the request, according to city rules.
