No recommendation for Calvary yet

Calvary Chapel still wants to expand and made another presentation to the Chadds Ford Township Planning Commission Wednesday evening, but they’ll have to go back again. As is often the case, issues center around traffic, parking, and sewage.

As previously reported in September, Calvary — which was built on Brandywine Drive in 2009 — wants to expand with an 11,500-square-foot addition on the northeast side of the chapel. That proposal includes a multi-purpose room and an outdoor terrace. At issue for the commission members at the time were how many people were members of the church, how many would be using that new space, how many students attended the school there, whether there were enough parking spaces, and if the bathroom facilities were adequate to accommodate more people.

Those questions still need to be answered to the commission members’ satisfaction.

Brenda Hobbs of Mann-Hughes Architecture, a firm that does a lot of faith-based architecture, said “The multi-purpose room is really the gathering space. It’s much more informal than the sanctuary would be.”

She continued, saying the space could be used for informal congregational meetings, dinners, a fellowship hall, and a space for movies and kids’ activities.

“The church really needs that space,” Hobbs said, “and they need it on the entry-level. Right now, the sanctuary is the meeting area.”

Commission member Tom Bradley asked, “Where is the church having these functions now? They’re having meetings; they’re having socials; they’re doing all this already. Where are they doing it and why is there a need for another 11,000 square foot space?”

Hobbs replied that events were being held in the sanctuary but “Everyone wants to preserve that for Sunday worship.”

Bradley also asked about other spaces in the church, specifically mentioning the lobby.

Hobbs said the geography of that area doesn’t work for dinners and other activities that Calvary wants to do because it’s too narrow.

Eventually, Bradley pressed the issue saying, “I want to know what their need is. What’s driving from inside the church? Why do you need to expand this much? That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

He wanted to know if the congregation was growing and if that was the reason.

“They’re not doing this for additional people,” Hobbs said. “They’re doing this for another type of space…Calvary now does not have a place where they can set up round tables for six so the congregation can have a meal together…The lobby is only 25 feet wide.”

She added that the local historical churches all had a fellowship hall where the congregation could gather in an informal setting.

“Let’s use an example of a congregational meal that that they want to gather together on a Sunday night and have a spaghetti dinner. That’s really what this is for,” she said, saying that could be for 200 to 300 people.

A long and meandering discussion ensued involving Bradley, Hobbs, Planning Commission Chairman Craig Huffman, other members of the commission, and people speaking for the church. What commission members wanted to know is the number of people in the congregation and how many students attend the Innovate Academy at Calvary.

(There are about 170 students plus 15-20 teachers, and about 600 people in the congregation, a church representative said.)

Huffman stressed the need to know about parking spaces — which total 550 — and water usage. Water use is measured in EDUs, equivalent dwelling units. Chadds Ford calculates an EDU at 217 gallons of wastewater per day.

“The issue we fundamentally have,” Huffman said, “is it is unusual that somebody would…substantially expand an existing structure without a demonstrated desire for growth and that the structure is going to be used more. And after the structure is used more there’s going to be an increased impact on the things that we, the township, have to care about.”

He cited traffic, parking, and sewage capacity as those concerns.

“You guys are already at the edge of your sewage capacity,” Huffman added. “If you’re adding additional usage at the church, you’re going to need an additional EDU,” but he doesn’t know if extra capacity is available.

Huffman went further saying, “The little dance that seems to be going on here, and I don’t like dancing, is that there’s this discussion about whether or not you’re expanding in the actual number of people who are going to be using this church and the school that’s in the church. That’s going to require us to evaluate the sewage, parking, and traffic needs associated with what’s going on.”

Hobbs said the church meets plumbing code requirements for the needed capacity but could not state the number of facilities.

Huffman said, “How can you say you’re in code without knowing how many sinks and toilets you have?”

Calvary is expected to return to the Planning Commission within the next few months.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.