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Photos by Steve Johnson Jacksonville Presbyterian pastor Larry Jung hopes his congregation can build a new church in Pheasant Meadows subdivision. The city has raised concerns about traffic. Seeking a bigger sanctuary Jacksonville church wants to rebuild; traffic concerns city By MELISSA MARTIN JACKSONVILLE -- After meeting in the same building for 118 years, the Rogue Valley's oldest congregation wants to build a modern facility with more classroom space. Jacksonville Presbyterian is proposing a new church situated on Middle Street in the 40-home Pheasant Meadows subdivision. The congregation has outgrown this California Street church, its meeting place for 118 years. Jacksonville Planning Commission will hold a public hearing about the proposal, which has drawn questions about traffic, at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Jacksonville Elementary School. "This has always been an active church and an important part of our community," says Jackie Reavis, a church member who lives across the street from the two-story landmark. "But we're in such great need for space because our congregation has grown to the point where we are squeezed." There are 253 members on the rolls, but the sanctuary's original wooden pews hold only 125. Since 1995, the church has accommodated the growth by renting space from Cascade Christian High School for added Sunday services, says the Rev. Larry Jung, the church's minister. "Some 30 percent of our congregation is under 18 years old and we have run out of classroom space for Sunday school," Jung says. The historic building presents a problem for older members as well. They must climb 17 steep stairs to the front entrance or ride a chair lift that ascends a 22-foot staircase to the back entrance, says church secretary Barbara Oakes. The city, however, says the new building would generate too much traffic for the subdivision. A staff report recommends that the city restrict the number and the frequency of church activities, as well as outdoor events. Some residents welcome the plans. Rene Beavers says she moved into the subdivision knowing that a church was planned for the vacant land across the street from her home. "We built our house knowing a church would be here and we are delighted," says Beavers, a one-year resident of the subdivision. "I've never known a church to ruin a neighborhood." Church traffic is not unique to Jacksonville. A growing church in Vancouver, Wash., for example, provides volunteers who direct traffic at busy intersections before and after services, says Dick Converse, a Rogue Valley Council of Governments planner who works with several cities. It's getting harder for Oregon churches to find suitable property after a recently approved land-use rule that limits churches to building inside city limits or more than three miles from an urban growth boundary. Jacksonville Presbyterian spent two years trying to buy land around its historic building but had no success, Jung says. Members purchased the 10 acres in Pheasant Meadows with the idea that they could build a church there, partly because subdivision covenants note that the land "may include the construction of a church." The church is hiring a specialist from Portland to protect 19,745 square feet of designated wetlands on the side of the 10-acre parcel that bumps up against an irrigated pear orchard. The congregation is proposing a one-story, 18,163-square-foot building on the site. Half would be used for classrooms and half for 448-seat sanctuary that also would serve as a multipurpose room, Jung says. It's a smaller version of a proposal the church submitted to the city last year. The previous plan showed four buildings totalling 34,000 squaring feet. But church leaders withdrew the plan and resubmitted the smaller one. "We rolled up our sleeves, stepped back and looked at the project," says Bruce Woolf, a Jacksonville resident who leads the building committee. "We're not professional church builders or designers. We're a committee that sat down and planned for the needs and growth of the church. Maybe we wished too big at first, but by looking at it and bringing it down, I think we found a good, workable plan." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA