A long-planned expansion of Seven Lakes Chapel in the Pines is on the Moore County's Planning Board agenda for Thursday, May 5.
The Chapel plans to add Sunday School rooms and conference areas in an approximately 8,000 square foot structure attached to the west side of the existing building, which will continue to house the sanctuary. Additional gravel parking areas will be added further west on the 3.4 acre tract the Chapel owns between Seven Lakes Drive and Devonshire Avenue.
The congregation mounted a successful fundraising campaign last Fall -- anchored by a single $300,000 contribution -- that will fund the expansion.
The Chapel's property, like the rest of Seven Lakes South, is zoned Gated Community-Seven Lakes [GC-SL] in the county zoning ordinance. Though the primary uses in GC-SL are residential and recreational, churches are allowed under a conditional use permit, which must be granted by the Planning Board.
Tuesday's Planning Board meeting will include a quasi-judicial public hearing on that conditional use permit; those wishing to speak on the matter will be sworn in before testifying.
As described in the staff report prepared for the Board [which you can download here], the Chapel's request is relatively uncomplicated. Driveways and vegetative screening are already in place, and the proposed expansion does not exceed the impervious surface limits within the Watershed Overlay District. A new septic system has already been approved by the County's Environmental Health Department, and no significant impact is expected on public schools or public infrastructure.
The Planning Board will hear testimony on and consider the Chapel's request in a meeting on Thursday, May 5, beginning at 6:00 pm, in the Commissioners Meeting Room in the Historic Courthouse in Carthage. Also on the evening's agenda is an annual report on the Small Area A, which includes Seven Lakes and West End. You can download an agenda that includes the staff report on the Chapel's Conditional Use Permit Request here.
