The plan to build a new church and affordable housing at Brighouse United Church moved one step forward on Monday.
Plans have been modified over the three-year planning process, and now a six-storey building with townhouses and a 10,000-square-foot church are envisioned to be built on the church property located just west of McDonald’s on No. 3 Road.
Stuart Appenheimer, who has been the minister at the church for 31 years, was pleased council moved forward with the development.
The projected needed the right pieces to be in place, he explained.
Firstly, the United Church formed a non-profit housing society, Three Point Housing Society, which will operate the housing. Then, BC Housing came on board to finance the construction of the project.
“Those two things came together to make it possible,” Appenheimer said.
The plan is to build 142 rental units, a new worship area and about 560 square feet of amenity space – but a child care centre originally planned won’t be built, and the one currently housed in the church is looking for new space - it will, however, stay open for now.
Of the units, 20 will be low-end affordable units and 68 will be for moderate incomes.
There will be one six-storey building with the church and rental apartments and a three-storey building with townhomes, all built over a parkade.
At about 10,000 square feet, the church will be 4,000-square-feet smaller than the current one.
Currently, five congregations meet at the church and there are 22 user groups all together using the facility.
Brighouse United Church was originally built a few blocks away, and then brought to the current site in the 1965 and was added on to. The building envelope of the current church – missing insulation in places and with thin, single-paned windows – is largely inefficient. Heating alone for the church costs $1,200 per month.
However, the plan is to hold onto some of the heritage pieces, for example, the stained-glass windows.
The rezoning application passed first reading on Monday.