Ahwatukee church in limbo over South Mountain freeway fight

by Allie Seligman - Feb. 24, 2012 09:01 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com

For 15 years, Mountain Park Community Church has been caught in limbo.

The church, at 24th Street and Pecos Road, is in the proposed path of the 22-mile South Mountain Freeway extension. It, along with more than 100 homes, would be destroyed during construction.

With a growing membership and a need for more space, Senior Pastor Allan Fuller said it's time for a decision.

"We have to do something in terms of space," Fuller said. "We can't be in standstill mode."

Church leaders are working on plans for a $40,000 parking-lot improvement and a children's wing that would add at least 5,000 square feet to the 30,000-square-foot facility.

But they can't implement those plans if the church is headed for destruction in the next few years, Fuller said.

"All of these things are on hold while we wait for a decision to be made," he said.

The Maricopa Association of Governments has said construction could start in 2015 at the earliest. It is likely that the Pecos Road alignment is the only option.

Mountain Park, a Christian church, has been at its location for 15 years. Fuller has been at the church for six years.

He was told early that they could lose the building to freeway construction, he said.

"It was something to keep in mind, but it wasn't a big deal," he said. "It had been dormant for so long. You just can't wait forever."

Fuller and his wife, Tami, even bought a home a mile and a half away. They wouldn't lose the house if the freeway is built down Pecos Road, but they would be within three houses of it, he said.

In 2006, about 1,300 people attended Sunday services. Now, about 2,000 people attend the two Sunday "celebrations," Fuller said. He estimates that Mountain Park has about 4,000 active members.

Of those 4,000 members, about 70 percent live in Ahwatukee, Fuller said. The rest come primarily from Tempe, Chandler and Maricopa.

Mountain Park also attracts people who aren't Christians, he said, with community-outreach programs focused on marriage and family. They hold free yoga classes that about 600 people attend regularly.

"We are a Christian church, and we recognize that not everyone is interested in Jesus Christ," Fuller said. "We want to be relevant to the community regardless of their faith background."

Mike Paschke, a member of the Mountain Park board of directors, said that growth and relevance are part of what makes waiting for the freeway decision so difficult.

"If we were a stagnant, meandering church, it would be less of an issue," the Ahwatukee man said. "We are just growing so much. ... The vibe here is as strong as it's ever been."

And that growth is "embryonic compared to what it's going to look like a couple years from now," he said. "It's about to explode in a really good way for us, we believe."

Still, Fuller said, the hesitance about what will happen to the building can be distracting. There isn't much suitable space in Ahwatukee for a new home for Mountain Park, he said.

"Where we are is really ideal," he said, in terms of space, facilities and accessibility.

In past negotiations, the Arizona Department of Transportation suggested a plot of land on the northwestern corner of Interstate 10 and Pecos Road. That location would be harder to get to, Fuller said.

Still, he's not worried about losing members.

"I'm certain that the church is going to survive," he said. "My concern is that we'd be distracted in the process. Relocation, we could handle that. Sitting in limbo, that's distracting."

Money is another concern. Mountain Park and ADOT will negotiate a price for relocating,+ if necessary, and the department would either look at the church's current value or what it would cost to build a comparable facility.

"Those are likely two very different numbers," Fuller said. "If we are forced to relocate and are compensated for the current value, we will take a multimillion-dollar hit."

Building a facility would take about two years, he said, and ADOT has said they would give Mountain Park time to complete the building before cutting off access to the Pecos Road location.

Fuller said he isn't strongly in favor of or strongly against the freeway, but he does hope for a decision soon.

"Five years ago when we were growing, we could have just stayed and waited," Fuller said.

"Now we have decisions to make, and we want to be responsible when we make those decisions."

Continued here:
Ahwatukee church in limbo over South Mountain freeway fight