County planners reject requests for utilities for ‘megachurches’

Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005

by Kristen Milton

Staff Writer

While the county executive has recommended deferring decisions on four proposed ‘‘megachurches” looking to build or expand, the Planning Board last week rejected the groups’ proposals for obtaining the necessary water and sewer service.

The board considered the appeals for changes in the current water and sewer service among a group of 20 such requests during a hearing on Oct. 10. It recommended that all the church requests be denied.

The final decision on whether to grant the changes will be made by the County Council.

The board concurred unanimously with planning staff opinions that rejected changes enabling the Derwood Bible Church’s project in Laytonsville, People’s Community Baptist Church’s expansion in Silver Spring and Church of the Redeemer’s construction in Gaithersburg.

Staff had also recommended denial of plans from the Christian Life Center, which ultimately withdrew its request due to the technical difficulties of connecting to the small Hyattstown wastewater treatment plant as was planned.

The water and sewer category changes have become part of the issue of the county’s Private Institutional Facilities (PIF) policy, which is currently under review by the council. The churches qualify as PIFs, which have previously been granted special consideration in the development process. Measures to address PIF policy were introduced before the council Oct. 3.

‘‘There’s a zoning text amendment on the table now,” said Gorge Valladares, of the Planning Board’s environmental division. ‘‘So there wasn’t too much logic from our point of view to continue to recommend deferral.”

Planning staff gave various reasons for the denials including environmental impacts, inconsistency with area master plans, conflicts with neighborhood character and removal of land from agricultural use.

Valladares said 20 people spoke on the PIF issue at the Oct. 10 hearing.