The church can’t expand on the site as it is now, Pastor Mark Martin said.
“We are landlocked,” he said. “This allows us to do that as well as keep the streets open and functioning.”
The church wants to vacate a 16-foot-wide section of Maiden Lane from Isabella Street to Dakota Avenue and a 25-foot-wide part of Isabella Street from North Street to Maiden Lane.
On-street parking would be eliminated on both sides of that part of Maiden Lane and two-way traffic would be maintained.
Parking would be eliminated on the east side of Isabella Street and that section would be one-way for southbound traffic only.
The request now heads to city commissioners and a related variance will be before the Board of Zoning Appeals on Oct. 18.
The church has twice in the past 10 years sought to close part of Isabella Street to allow it to expand. It withdrew the request both times in the face of neighborhood objections.
The current request is intended to better address those concerns, Whitmore said.
The church met with residents to discuss the plans, Treasurer Anderson Dudley said.
“We ended up going throughout the entire neighborhood,” he said.
The only opposition Monday came from a land-contract owner of a duplex, Ric Bush, who learned of the request only recently due to a mix up on the ownership. His rental property on Maiden Lane would lose two on-street parking spaces.
“If you take parking away from any property ... it’s going to diminish the price,” said Mike Trinkle, who spoke for Bush because he lives out of town.
The church offered to install parking spaces in the rear at its cost, which Trinkle said he could be agreeable to if it’s in writing.
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