Very soon we will be announcing a town hall meeting to share what our architect has presented to the Vestry as a follow-up to our master plan. As this date nears, I thought it would be a good idea to remind us all how we got here. As the months have gone on, I am aware that many of us have forgotten why the Vestry went down this road in the first place, or weren’t a part of the congregation when we started. In order to make sure we all have the same basic foundation for interpreting this upcoming presentation, I thought it would be helpful to recap the process that got us here and some of the data that pointed the way.
It was more than two and a half years ago when the Vestry decided to address crowding at the Sunday 9:15 am and Saturday 5:30 pm services. We held town hall meetings in March 2016 to share our concerns and brainstorm solutions. We followed up the town hall meetings with a parish survey that generated almost 300 responses, after which we held another round of town hall meetings. That survey helped us focus on a short-term solution to the problem: adding another service to our schedule. It was the following January that we launched the parish hall service as our fourth Sunday morning service. It was designed to reduce the overcrowding at 9:15, which it has done.
It was also in the 2016 survey that more than two thirds of the survey respondents indicated that we should consider expansion or new building within five years. That level of support surprised the Vestry a bit, but it ultimately led us to engage a Master Planning process so that we could act wisely as we looked to the future and long-term solutions. After a comprehensive search, we hired Marquis Latimer + Halback (Saint Augustine, FL) in March 2017 to implement our Master Plan process. After meeting with stakeholders inside and outside the congregation and a series of parishioner workshops, we received our final Master Plan in July of 2017.
The Master Plan studied what space we have available for ministry now, what we need now, and what we might need in ten years’ time, given our historic growth trends. It included a basic proposal that hinged on relocating Frederica Road, replacing the current program building at Christ Church, adding a parish events pavilion, and relocating St. Ignatius on its site. The Plan was well received, and the Vestry assessed its next steps. Remembering how many had suggested we needed action within five years’ time, the Vestry decided to move forward, forming a building committee, that in turn hired an architectural firm, Houser Walker (Atlanta, GA), to take the Master Plan and turn it into an actual design so that we could assess costs. The Vestry kept Marquis Latimer + Halback on board as Program Manager (PM), and hired Batson Cook (Jacksonville, FL office) as Construction Manager (CM). Bringing the PM and CM in at this part of the process ensured that the design work done by the architect would be accurately evaluated for final cost, giving us the best information possible about what we would be able to do and what it would ultimately cost.
What we will see presented is a plan for a new, larger, flexible worship space in the midst of a two-story program space building, on the site where the current parish hall building sits. While the Master Plan evaluated saving part of the building and repurposing it, that part of the plan was not a favorite among the congregation and presents considerable challenges to creating an attractive and functional building on the site. We are also looking to keep the building in the same space because of its proximity to the historic church, which is and should remain the heart of our campus.
The proposal assumes shifting Frederica Road to the north, a project that is moving forward regardless of other construction projects. The Federal Land Access Program will be funding nearly sixty percent of the cost of this project and benefits Christ Church, Fort Frederica, and Glynn County. It allows us to permanently eliminate parking on the right-of-way along Frederica Road and the necessity for pedestrians to cross the road in order to get to the church.
The solutions that this process put forth to address St. Ignatius are fairly straight forward and will allow greater seating capacity along with a quieter worship experience, proper storage, and a proper bathroom. Changes to the parking area will allow safer travel from cars to the building and eliminate drainage problems during rainstorms.
The last piece of the proposal includes an events pavilion on the six-acre parcel we own behind the columbarium. This pavilion is envisioned to give us a beautiful four-season space for receptions, gatherings, and parties. We believe this space could be rented out and also generate income for the parish.
As we prepare to share the architect’s work, we have also contracted with Sinclair Townes and Company (Atlanta, GA) to implement a feasibility study to inform the Vestry about what we can reasonably raise to support a capital project. That process will begin shortly after the Vestry’s presentation from the architect is shared. All of this effort has been made so that the Vestry and the congregation can have all the necessary information to make a wise decision about our next steps and our plans for the future.
It is also worth noting that much of our data is focused on the Christ Church campus, as that is where most of the life of the congregation takes place. With regard to the more complex scenarios at the Christ Church site, what follows is some data might be helpful in understanding why we have tackled such a large project.
As you can see from the graph below, at the time of our Master Plan, we confirmed that we were short on space in virtually every area of our parish life, from parking spaces to office spaces. Consequently, the proposal we will see increases space for all of those areas. In some cases the architect was able to show us flexible use (dual or more uses for a single space) that saved on buildable space. He also has a design that takes into account future expansion if and when there would be such a need. The chart shows each area of ministry, along with what space we have now, need now, need within 10 years, and what the recommended design offers.
One of the other aspects of this conversation is the reality that over the last year and half of having two 9:15 services, many of us have forgotten how full the church was just two years ago. It seems like there’s plenty of room in the church on many Sundays at 9:15, because there is. But when we go back and evaluate the total attendance at the 9:15 hour, and compare those attendance figures to the space in Christ Church, we see that would still regularly exceed comfortable capacity in the Church, meaning we’d be too full to grow. As people have lamented the need for two services, it actually bolsters our case for building a bigger space. The chart below shows what these attendance trends look like.
The blue line shows the 9:15 in the Church, the orange line indicates the 9:15 in the Parish Hall, while the green line shows the combination of the two. The three horizontal lines represent 70%, 80%, and 90% of the comfortable seating capacity in the church, respectively. Each white star is a Sunday during last year’s program year that we exceeded 80% of the church’s comfortable seating capacity.
We don’t have charts that show the continuing struggle with adequate and safe parking, the number one priority from the Master Plan. Nor do we have charts for how tightly the staff is squeezed into some of our offices. We continue to see full classrooms with our relatively modest Sunday School size, and people still tell us they stay home from some funerals or events because of seating availability. For those of us who are in and around the church every day, we encounter these space challenges frequently. We completely understand that those who aren’t here throughout the week, and those who attend the 8:00 am and 11:15 am services, just don’t see the crowding on a regular basis. As a result, we hope this kind of information is helpful as an explanation for what we’ve been working on.
Please keep your eyes and ears open for announcements about our upcoming town halls, and I hope to see you there!
Tom+