With the help of Doyle Coffin Architecture, St. Mary Parish has developed a Master Plan project to aid them in building a new church.
Why a new church? St. Mary explains, "Our Church and Parish Hall are too small to allow for more than a small portion of the 2,000 weekly attendees to worship together at the same time." Additionally, they explain, "Our current facilities provide no convenient gathering space either before or after Mass."
St. Mary Church has shared with us the details surrounding this exciting community project and has answered many questions.
What does the recommended Plan include?
The Plan calls for building a new 750-seat church on High Ridge Avenue, facing down Catoonah Street. It would include much needed meeting space, a dedicated area for our Parish Youth Ministry, and an area where our families could socialize after Mass.
Why not just renovate and expand the existing church on the current site?
Due to existing building code requirements, it is difficult and costly to reconfigure the existing space in its current footprint, and it will not be possible to accommodate the required seating capacity for the new church. For example, the space between the rows of pews would have to be increased to allow for easier movement in and out. That would mean fewer rows of pews.
We have investigated the possibility of relocating and expanding our Church on the existing property, but the cost would be essentially the same as building a new church across the street. Moreover, it would not address the accessibility and safety issues that will be resolved with the new High Ridge Road location.
How will this proposed Plan impact Saint Mary School and the Religious Education Program?
Our Parish Hall will no longer be needed for Mass, ministry meetings or fellowship space. Our Adoration Chapel will be relocated from our School building. Religious Education will continue to use our School classrooms. Our Parish Hall may continue to be used for some of our larger social activities.
How much is this going to cost?
The final cost will be driven by the final design of the new church, and the feasibility study will determine how much we undertake now and what any future phases might include. Right now we are estimating a cost range of $10-12 million.
What is the plan to pay for this?
The current plan calls for (1) selling some existing church property and (2) raising funds through a Parish-wide capital campaign. Our Parish will not incur any long-term debt to fund construction of a new church.
Our next step is our feasibility study with a series of interviews and focus group meetings, which we hope to complete by the end of June. Our Facilities Team will fine-tune our plans and design to a cost that reflects Parish support. A formal capital campaign would begin in the late fall of this year with the hope of commencing construction in the summer of 2018.
What if I have more questions?
We will be providing regular updates on our Parish website, Parish-wide emails, bulletin announcements, etc.
For additional information, visit the St. Mary Parish website here.