Dear FUUSN Folks,
We have been approached by the developer of the Santander Bank (Mark Development) regarding expanding their initial offer to pay for and construct for us a parking lot. The original offer was for 18 parking spaces, that would expand our current parking lot back to the playground fence. The new expansion being proposed would go all the way to our property line on that side of our church, taking up part of the playground, and providing an additional 9 parking spaces, for a total of 27 spaces.
The Board of Trustees would like to take the Congregational “temperature” regarding this possibility before making a decision whether to pursue this offer of expanded parking. There are many details to work out, so the Board would initially provide Mark Development with an “agreement in principle” pending the details to get worked out to FUUSN’s satisfaction. Laurel is seeking more concrete information about the costs to FUUSN of any changes involved. You can view proposed maps about the original plan and the expanded parking plan here.
We will hold two open conversations next week –
1. On Saturday May 7 at 10:00 am via zoom,
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84143466563?pwd=SC9iL1l0akcwNm1HS1FLWGEwRndSQT09
Meeting ID: 841 4346 6563
Passcode: 191944
2. On Sunday May 8 at 9:00 am in person at FUUSN (especially if you would like to see the spaces we’re talking about.)
3. You are also welcome to email Laurel Farnsworth & Demie Stathoplos if you have thoughts you want to share. If you’re not able to attend one of the meetings above, we encourage you to reach out to us. (df.1876.laurel@gmail.com & dstathoplos@gmail.com)
Why would FUUSN be interested in more parking?
1. Our tenants, Pine Village and Dorshei Tzedek, have found the lack of parking for staff and for parents dropping off and picking up young children to be a problem. Dorshei Tzedek has already informed Laurel they will be leaving, and we want to be attractive to future tenants.
2. We could make up for the loss of playground space by extending the playground towards the front of our building and moving the fence in that direction.
3. Having more accessible parking for our congregation would be helpful to get us all back together in person again.
4. Having Mark Development pay for this is a one time deal. If we want to grow our congregation and be able to maintain tenants who help pay for our operating expenses, parking is a key ingredient.
Why would FUUSN not be interested?
1. The aesthetics of our playground and outside area will be changed. The expansion would require us to relocate our playground equipment, fences – which we would pay for ourselves. Laurel estimates the costs as nominal and well within our capital budget.
2. The trees on our property along the fence facing the highway would need to be removed.
Why would Mark Development offer this to FUUSN?
The developer wants to put a restaurant on the ground floor of the Santander development, and would want to be able to use the parking spaces he builds for us when we’re not using them. He might run into problems getting permission from the city for his plans if he can’t show sufficient parking to make up for the big parking lot in back of the bank that he’s going to build over.
We hope to see you or hear from you if you have thoughts about this project.