Church Expansion Heads to Public Hearing on Tuesday

St. Pius X Catholic Church's plan to build a Faith Center onto the back of its sanctuary heads to its first and only public hearing Tuesday night.

The Town Plan and Zoning Commission, which is comprised of 10 elected volunteer residents, seven of whom vote on development applications, will conduct the hearing at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday in McKinley School.

The Faith Center, which would join the church's sanctuary, school building, rectory and barn on a 13.3-acre property at 834 Brookside Drive, would include space for group and ministry meetings, a chapel that would seat 100 people, a prayer garden for spiritual meditation, a community room for parish social events, and offices for meetings with clergy and parishioners, according to the church's Web site.

The church is 82 percent of the way to completing a $5.5 million capital campaign for the Faith Center's construction and for repairs to the existing church that include a new roof, installing new doors at the church entrance and sacristry, repairing and repointing brick work, replacing gutters and leaders, refinishing and restoring church pews, painting and restoring outdoor columns, and restoring and repairing wood on the church tower and front of the church, according to the church's Web site.

The town Conservation Department already granted a "certificate of wetlands conformance" for the Faith Center, which did not require a public hearing before the town's Inland Wetlands Commission. The Faith Center would comply with town zoning regulations so a hearing before the town's Zoning Board of Appeals isn't needed.

Determining the size of the Faith Center isn't easy because its square footage in the zoning application appears to be combined with other buildings on the church's property.

Assistant Town Planner James Wendt said the difference in ground floor area and total floor area from the current buildings to the current buildings plus the Faith Center was 14,230 square feet. "It's a little bit bigger in footprint than the existing sanctuary," he said.

The total ground floor area of buildings on the church property would increase from 27,500 square feet to 41,730 square feet, while the total floor area would increase from 43,350 square feet to 57,580 square feet.