Plans for a 2,000-seat church have riled some folks in this small Pierce County city
Plans for a 2,000-seat church in Milton have upset some residents of the Pierce County city, population 8,300.
Salvation Slavic Baptist Church submitted an application for a conditional use permit in April 2019 for nearly 20 acres at 1707 23rd Ave. The project includes a 92,000-square-foot church, holding up to 2,000 people, a 7,500-square-foot gym, a 26-student classroom and 546 parking stalls.
Nearby residents have created a nonprofit organization, Citizens for a Small-Town Milton, and a GoFundMe to fight the project.
Amy Hendershot, who has spearheaded the opposition effort with her husband and City Council member Phil Linden, said more than 150 people have donated.
Linden said the project breaks with city code on conditional use permits that states a development cannot “adversely affect the established character and planned character of the surrounding vicinity.”
“If putting something the size of a shopping center is not going to change the character of the neighborhood, what would?” he said.
The church’s project manager, Andrew Chepel, declined to comment for this story. The Salvation Slavic Baptist Church and the Salvation Christian Academy is currently located in Edgewood at 10622 8th St. E.
Opponents have been successful thus far in delaying the permit.
The nonprofit appealed a city staff report in November, leading to a hearing examiner hearing on Feb. 21 and 22. The city’s State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) report found no significant impacts to traffic, the environment or noise.
The hearing has been continued for another two-day hearing to hear the city and applicant’s rebuttal and cross examination. Initial presentations of the city report, the citizen group, and the project were presented in February. The date has yet to be finalized.
City staff in the Planning and Community Development department told The Puyallup Herald the project application follows zoning requirements for single family residential areas, which allows for homes, schools and churches.
“It meets our table of uses for conditional use permits. They submitted all documents and are looking to mitigate impacts,” senior city planner Brittany Port said.
The church also asked for a second public meeting to hear from the public about concerns, Milton’s Public Works director Nick Afzali said.
The property is at the intersection of Taylor Street and 23rd Avenue.
Port said the project includes “mitigation impacts,” or street parking and road improvements like a landscape strip and a sidewalk.
Currently, 23rd Avenue does not have bike lanes, a curb, gutter or sidewalk and does not meet city road standards, Port said. The proposal includes “half street improvements,” meaning the road from the center line to their property must be brought up to city standards.
Afzali said the north part of Taylor Street would also see a bike lane and curb, gutter, sidewalk and landscape improvements.
The city report estimates the project will contribute 96 new trips during afternoon peak hours to the city’s road network. The Sunday peak hour is expected to generate a peak of 919 trips.
The nonprofit has paid for an attorney in the hearing and a traffic analyst to review the project.
Ross Tilghman, an independent transportation consultant, was hired by “Citizens for a Small-Town Milton.” He told The Puyallup Herald both streets are too narrow and not designed to carry high-volumes of traffic. He does not believe that the traffic data included in the SEPA report includes all the church activities.
“What we see from this existing church and school in Edgewood and based on their calendar of activities is most of that happens in the evenings, and that’s not something discussed or revealed in the traffic report,” Tilghman said.
Asked about the traffic impact data and the citizens concerns, Afzali disagrees.
“We want to make sure this is done correctly. We feel comfortable with our analysis, during a.m., p.m. and the worst time — that is going to be Sunday,” Afzali said. “Mitigation should be done at the worst time of the day.”
Neighborhood resident Cheryl Reid-Simons disagrees with the city’s conclusion that the neighborhood will not be significantly impacted.
“I do not personally believe that there is a way to make something that big, match the character of the neighborhood,” she said.
Reid-Simons worries about the traffic impact of daily school, events and weekend service, as well as environmental impacts.
The city report said no endangered or threatened species have been identified as located on or near the site.
Hendershot said Surprise Lake Tributary running through the neighborhood has been able to hold coho salmon this past year, and she is concerned the project will disrupt their progress.
The city noted the presence of young coho in its report and said it has prompted a Capital Improvement Plan update to include a bottomless box culvert to enhance fish passage.
“I reviewed their SEPA determination of non-significance and they missed the boat on several issues,” Hendershot said. “There are endangered turtle habitats there and the proposal wants to cut down more than half the trees out there and there are bald eagles that nest the area. They didn’t evaluate them at all or they had the right data and came to the wrong conclusion.”
Linden is concerned about the proximity of the project to Surprise Lake. The development is across the 23rd Avenue from the lake. The city report said due to the lake, there must be frontage improvements and the site is required to manage the stormwater runoff.
Reid-Simons wishes the property was used to build more affordable housing.
“We have a huge housing shortage so why are we building almost 20 acres in an area that is designed for homes and build a gigantic church there,” she said. “To eliminate that much housing space when we have a housing crisis seems irresponsible.”
Hendershot said $17,000 of the $18,000 raised has already been spent. She hopes the community can continue to fight the project.
“It’s really built a sense of community of people working together,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that the City of Milton is not listening to us, and as taxpayers we’ve had to raise money on this size to fight the city run by our tax dollars.”
