Council delays church proposal

A church's plan to convert an existing building into a new ministry headquarters faced a setback Monday evening as the city council voted to send the proposal back to the city's planning and zoning commission.

The conditional use permit submitted by the No-Limits Christian Ministries seeks to convert the former Salvation Army building at 535 N. Main St. into a church and counseling center.

The city planning and zoning commission had previously recommended approving the church's plans. However, the commission attached four conditions the ministry needed to meet for final approval.

Reviewing that recommendation, Mayor Tom Rist remained "perplexed" on how the planning and zoning commission approved the permit without resolving those issues.

"Normally when we get an application like this, they're at least partially resolved," the mayor said.

Limited parking next to the planned church remained a key point the city council addressed Monday evening.

Under the current ordinance, the ministry needs 71 parking spaces for the 282 people the building can fully accommodate. The facility has enough space for just 23 vehicles, according to city officials.

Clark Williams, senior pastor for the Christian church, emphasized that the church has a written agreement with Airman Pawn to use a section of its parking lot for additional church parking. In addition, the church expected to have a formal agreement from the Albertson's headquarters on Tuesday.

In his comments to church representatives, Councilman Geoff Schroeder urged them to file joint use agreements from both businesses at the county courthouse. Without those binding agreements, those businesses could "come back tomorrow and say 'no' to those plans, making them null and void." That would leave the church without the necessary parking spaces, Schroeder said.

Councilwoman Alain Isaac emphasized that the church wouldn't comply with the parking ordinance until it files those joint-use agreements.

Meanwhile, questions surfaced at Monday's meeting on the number of people already using the facility.

In recent weeks, the church received a certificate of occupancy from city building officials to use the facility for limited counseling services. The agreement stressed the building wouldn't accommodate actual church services until the city council approved the conditional use permit, said city building official Mike McCain.

At no time did the city give the church approval to use the building for religious services, McCain added.

However, whether the church abided by that agreement was called into question after members of the city council reported seeing nearly 30 cars parked in front of the Salvation Army building with another 40 vehicles parked in the Albertson's parking lot Sunday morning.

Questions on the maximum number of people served during one of the counseling sessions raised other issues between the church and city representatives. From his perspective, McCain said a counseling session would normally handle no more than 20 people.

However, Williams argued that the church's form of Christian counseling can sometimes include more than 100 people. In fact, the church converted one room into a multi-purpose area for this type of large-scale counseling.

"Regardless of the nature of the counseling, the issue here is the number of people in the building," Schroeder told the church representatives.

In addition to the parking issue, the crosswalks over North Main and North 2nd streets remained another concern at Monday's council meeting. Both roads serve as main traffic arteries through the city's downtown area.

According to McCain, the Idaho Department of Transportation may have issues having dozens of people crossing those roads at the same time each week. In his defense, Williams said only a handful of cars pass through that area on Sunday mornings.

The planning and zoning commission expects to readdress the church permit during a public meeting at 6 p.m. on March 7.

In other discussions at Monday's meeting, the city council voted to allocate $2.5 million toward plans to improve the city's water distribution system. The initiative follows a recent water rate increase to help cover the costs associated with building a new water storage tank on the north side of the interstate and upgrading the existing water distribution system.

The water project represents an "ordinary necessity" for Mountain Home, said Councilman Richard Urquidi.

During the meeting Public Works Director Wayne Shepherd outlined proposals ranging from $1.7 to $3.9 million to get the water transmission line upgrade project moving forward.

City engineers remain cautiously optimistic they can use an existing water culvert running beneath the interstate to tie into an existing water tank on the north side of the interstate, Shepherd said. Running the needed 24-inch water line through the existing culvert represents a significant cost-saving step, he added.

However, before it can move ahead with that plan, the city needs to check with the irrigation district to ensure it has an easement that would allow the city to use the culvert, Shepherd said.