Church plans a big move

St. Paul AME envisions not only new worship space, but affordable housing and other community amenities

CHAPEL HILL -- ******

CORRECTION

A story in the City & State section Friday about St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church's plans to move from downtown Chapel Hill to a site off Purefoy Drive incorrectly said the site is on the government-owned Greene Tract. The parcel is just west of the Greene Tract and is owned by the church.

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Along with a new school, the Rogers Road neighborhood could be getting a new church, community center, affordable homes and an athletic field.

St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, 101 N. Merritt Mill Road, has needed more space for years, but it can't expand because it is landlocked.

Now it wants to build a 22-acre campus on part of the Greene Tract, 164 acres of government-owned land in the Rogers Road Study Area near the county landfill.

The church submitted its proposal to the town Thursday, said architect George Williams of G.H. Williams Collaborative in Durham. The Rogers Road Small Area Planning Task Force got an early look last week and passed a resolution supporting the plan.

Under preliminary plans, a 51,000-square-foot main building would hold a 600-seat sanctuary, a fellowship hall, classrooms, offices and a day-care center in the west wing. The east wing would house a community center with a gym, locker rooms, a teen center and senior center.

On the rest of the campus, the church would build a four-story senior housing center with 50 units, about 30 affordable homes, an athletic field, basketball and tennis courts, and a cemetery. About 175 parking spaces will be built around the main building and serve the church, community center and senior housing building.

St. Paul AME has raised about a quarter of the $3 million to $4 million needed to begin the project's first phase, which includes the sanctuary and fellowship hall, said Rose Bynum, the church's capital fund committee chairwoman. The church wants to raise three-fourths of the money from donations and borrow the rest.

Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County jointly own the Greene Tract. In the past, they said they wanted to build affordable housing on 18 acres and keep the rest undeveloped.

At the Rogers Road task force's meeting last week, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board leaders said they might want to build the district's 11th elementary school off Purefoy Road. Although school plans are in the preliminary stages, they would need to move quickly to open the school by 2010.

Town Council members Mark Kleinschmidt and Bill Strom head the Rogers Road task force. Neighbors think the new campus "would be a great match for their community," Strom said.

"Personally, I was impressed with the broad range of programs that the master plan lays out, from traditional worship to the community center, day care, senior housing and lots of active recreation," he said. "It seemed to me like they were taking a really thoughtful approach to some of the environmental constraints on the site."

Neloa Jones, a resident of the Rogers Road neighborhood running for county commissioner, called the plans a "lifeline."

"It's exactly what would help revitalize and sustain this community," Jones said. "It is the kind of thing the people of this community have been looking forward to for many, many years."