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Planners say no to new church By MELISSA MARTIN JACKSONVILLE -- The Planning Commission voted 4-2 Wednesday to deny First Presbyterian's request to build a new church in the Pheasant Meadows subdivision. The application didn't meet the city's list of seven criteria required for conditional use permits, said Debbi Sharp, planning commissioner. The Rev. Larry Jung, minister at First Presbyterian, said the church would appeal to the Jacksonville City Council. "We're still hopeful," Jung said. "We felt it would end up at the City Council level." Planning Commission members said a church building on 10 acres on Middle Street would generate too much traffic in the new subdivision, plus would create a hardship for residents as church-goers entered and exited the subdivision. Two planning commissioners disagreed with the majority vote. "I felt the applicant met all seven criteria," said Jerry Ferronato, pointing to a chart posted on Old City Hall walls that guides Planning Commission decisions. Commissioner Wade Branscum said he voted against denying the application because he believes a church is an accepted use in a subdivision. "I've seen churches in residential areas all over the Rogue Valley," Branscum said. "There is very little adverse affect to the subdivision." About 70 people in the audience left, many of them walking back to their 180-year-old building on California Street for a prayer meeting, Jung said. The church -- the oldest congregation in Southern Oregon -- needs a new building because it has outgrown its current site, which is an historic landmark, said Bruce Woolf, the building committee chairman. "Our church looked at every possible property in Jacksonville the past seven years and there are none," Woolf told an opponent outside city hall after the commission's vote. "We are not a wealthy church and we are not a big church. We are only 250 members." Church member Kathy Hoskin, a Jacksonville real estate agent, expressed disappointment, but not surprise, at the outcome. "We felt there were people voting out of self-interest to protect their property," Hoskin said. Pheasant Meadows resident Jody Hathaway questioned votes by members who are neighbors of the proposed church. "I feel there should have been a fair and impartial hearing," said Hathaway, who is not a church member. "The three members who live in or near the subdivision should not vote, just as if there were a church member on the board, they shouldn't be allowed to vote either." Planning Commission Chairman Bill Leep said the church's lawyer brought up the conflict of interest earlier, but planning commission members discussed it and felt they could weigh the facts objectively. The matter was then dropped. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA