Mennonite Church Proposal

After several months of refusing to return out telephone calls, the church expressed interest in sitting down with us the week before Christmas.  We had a fairly friendly meeting with their construction committee and we each discussed the important issues and desires that we had.  We got together in mid-January and walked the property to take a look at specific details that each group would like in the ongoing negotiations.  Here is a summary of their key points.

1) If TOPS or the neighborhood buys part of the land, the church members who are developers will go away and not build the 12 housing units.
2) They want to retain 4.5 to 5 acres of flat land for their church complex.  This is about one acre more than their plan with the development.
3) They are very concerned about liability and do not want neighborhood hikers crossing their parking lot to access the trail.
4) They want 165-185K for the remaining hillside and flat land.
5) The still want the church to be built down in the area of the old lake bed and are not very receptive to moving up towards the corner.
6) The want the trail access from Ranch Dr to be separated from their church by a split rail fence.
7) They want the trail to be built up in the forest rather than down in the flat area.
8) They want members of the neighborhood to put up 25-30K in earnest money by January 31st in order to hold off the development application while our TOPS appeal is proceeding.

As all of you know, the public process is very slow.  The two week period that they gave us to decide on the validity of their offer and setup fundraising efforts was not sufficient for our volunteer group to seriously consider their offer.  In addition, the price of $165-185K for about 1 acre of developable land seems rather high and I doubt that anyone would seriously consider putting their house on the line as front money for this project.  In addition, moving the trail up the hillside is a considerable construction project and would be much more difficult for a neighborhood organization to maintain than the existing trail at the toe of the hill.

The church took a very strong position and set a very short time frame.  They barely budged on any of the issues that we placed on the table.  In setting such a short time frame, they obviously new that their offer could not be accepted.  At this point, they are moving towards the full application of 12 units and a church.  If we are successful in blocking their efforts, I feel very confident that a much better deal with a reasonable time frame can be reached.

Scot