Church access changed amid road work delay

SPRING HILL A delay in road construction prompted a local church to ask permission to use two subdivision streets as access points for Sunday traffic.

City Planner Paul Keltner said Spring Hills Planning Commission approved a plan allowing the Church at Station Hill to access two streets in a local subdivision as roadwork had not caught up to the churchs original plans. He said the plan was approved Monday despite opposition from both the citys planning and engineering staff.

Church traffic would enter the property from and exit onto Aaron Drive and Austin Drive which then funnels down to Common Wealth Drive and Port Royal Road, Keltner said.

The churchs first phase was originally designed to have access along collector roads Ray Williams and the future expansion of Reserve Boulevard, Keltner said. Since neither collector road has been completed along their property, they proposed to push all the traffic from the church along two minor subdivision streets.

Keltner said the churchs plot of land contains a 50,262-square-foot building with the potential to seat 700 people. He said Phase 1 of the project indicates as many as 607 vehicles could move throughout the two residential streets before and after Sunday services.

Planning Commission Chairman Jonathan Schwartz said the church will be allowed to direct traffic onto Aaron Drive and Austin Drive until the needed extension of Reserve Boulevard is finished.

At the end of the day, they will connect to Reserve Boulevard, he said. That wasnt showing on their final site plan, so we amended the approval of their plan as long as the submit a new plan showing the new place where it will connect. As it stands now, the plan is to use those two roads until Reserve Boulevard is fully constructed.

Schwartz said there are no definite plans for the completion of Reserve Boulevard to his knowledge.

The money for the construction is in escrow, he said. A lot of the decisions on when that expansion will happen are up to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

The commission also made changes to how height restrictions will be approved in the future.

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Church access changed amid road work delay