After nearly 15 years of growth in a former furniture store, Naples Community Church cleared its first hurdle to raze the old building and adjacent restaurant to construct a larger, resilient contemporary church.
The Naples Planning Advisory Board unanimously voted to amend a 2010 conditional-use petition that allowed the church to operate in the east portion of 849 Seventh Ave. S., a commercial building, and approved an agreement for off-site parking on an adjacent lot at 950 Sixth Ave. S.
The recommendation, which goes before City Council on March 19, includes several requirements. Among them are allowing the public to use the parking lot when it’s not being used by the church.
The planned construction comes at a time when churches are dwindling. The National Council of Churches estimates 100,000 churches will close nationwide over the next several years — about a quarter of existing churches.
“I’ve been asked several times why we’re building a church when churches are closing their doors and I say because churches are closing their doors,” Pastor Kirt Anderson told the board, noting the nondenominational church’s mission is to serve the city. “I believe that the church has a significant future of service going forward, so that’s why we’re here.”
The church’s land-use attorney, Clay Brooker of Cheffy Passidomo, noted the church is growing and needs more room for expansion. The new church will be about 30,000 square feet, with 316 seats in the sanctuary, an increase from 222. Construction will be done in two phases to allow the church to host services and activities during construction.
According to its website, the church began in a home, where congregants met on Sunday afternoons. It then moved to a community room at a local bank, space at NCH Baker Hospital and then Naples High School. It began leasing the current location for Easter services in 2009.
Architect David Corban’s plans would transform the two-story commercial building with arches into a contemporary church with stained-glass windows, an expansive entryway and fellowship courtyard. It also would be elevated and resilient to hurricanes and flooding; it’s currently 4½ feet below Federal Emergency Management Agency standards.
“Goals were set out for what should be accomplished with the new building and first on Pastor Kirt’s list was ‘We want it to feel like a church,’” Brooker told the board before the vote. “Now it doesn’t really feel like a church.”
In March 2010, Council approved the original conditional-use petition to allow a church at that location under two conditions. If increased seating were needed, the church would have to address parking needs, and it must work with the property owner to decrease the impact of site lighting on adjacent properties.
Three years later, in January 2013, the church purchased the 0.08-acre lot and building for $2.25 million. But the church grew, and parking became tight, Brooker said.
In April 2015, Council approved a right-of-way application allowing it to use up to 15 spaces in a nearby city-owned parking lot at the southeast corner of Eighth Street South and Eighth Avenue South for valet service on Sunday mornings. In 2021, property records show, the church purchased 0.36 acres at 950 Sixth Ave. S. to expand parking.
The church currently occupies the east portion of the building, while the west portion is leased by a restaurant, Seventh South Craft Food + Drink, and other commercial uses. Brooker pointed out that removing those uses will decrease traffic.
Code requires one parking space per four seats, 79 parking spaces. The church will use 35 parking spaces on the church parcel at the corner of Seventh Avenue South and Ninth Street South; 29 spaces in the church-owned parking lot about 250 feet to the east; and 15 spaces in a city parking lot 480 feet away. The additional parking satisfies a requirement that parking be within a radius of no more than 600 feet away from the church.
Brooker told the board the project would upgrade stormwater management by replacing a 25-year-old system on the church parcel and adding a new stormwater system at the off-site parking lot, “significantly improving existing drainage conditions.” The changes, including landscaping, will more than double the previous area, which is currently 17%, to 38% — reducing flooding and erosion.
Green space will be increased because parking will be located beneath the elevated church, and other parking lot areas will be replaced with landscaping. A garden and surrounding landscaping will feature Florida-friendly and native flowers and plants, including gumbo limbo trees, with a bloom schedule to screen parking. A shady lady olive tree will be preserved.
Others on the project team are Trebilcock Consulting Solutions, engineer James Carr of Agnoli Barber & Brundage Inc., Laura Patterson of DWY Landscape Architects and Sesco Lighting.
