Parish Development/Building Committee Update – November 2025

In the 24 August bulletin we communicated an update regarding both the investigation into an alternative proposal for a fire sprinkler system and the beginning of the Design Development phase with Speedwell. Since then, we have made satisfactory progress on both fronts.

After initial discussions with three township officials back in August, our fire protection engineer put together an updated proposal based on those discussions. This proposal was sent to the township where it was circulated for comment to a wider audience within the township’s emergency services staff. The key aspect of the concept was the reduction of the township ordinance requirement for a 30,000-gallon on-site reservoir/tank. The concept we proposed was a much smaller tank (6,000 gallons or less) which would provide adequate time for emergency services to respond. Feedback from the township manager was that all comments were favorable and we should proceed with including the concept in our response to the township engineer’s review of the Land Development Application received last year. We then directed our civil engineer to do just that, and our response was finalized and submitted to the township on October 17th. Their review and response should take up to two months, and we hope to get on the Board of Supervisors agenda for LDA approval before the end of the year.

August 2025 - Capital Campaign and Building Project Update

As you know, we launched our Capital Campaign last month. Since then, Ambassadors have been meeting with parishioners, presenting them with the latest plans as well as the current level of our campaign. Thank you to all who have so far pledged and donated as well as everyone scheduled to meet with them in the coming weeks! Also, thank you to our ambassadors who are willing to have these conversations! It is our hope to complete this campaign by early October.

Building Committee Report 2024

2024 Highlights

• Met again with the Township Zoning Planning Commission to update them on the application
• Then met with the Zoning Hearing Board for the township and the zoning variances were granted
• Released a Request for Proposal for architectural and/or design-build companies
• Selected Speedwell Design & Construction as the design-build firm for the project
• Completed the Schematic Design phase and estimated a construction budget for the project
• Finalized and submitted the land development application to the township

Building Committee Report 2022-2023

2022

• Presented plans and drawings at the 2022 Parish Annual Meeting and received very favorable support to continue to develop the concepts presented
• Held two (2) “Get To Know Us” sessions with our neighbors to introduce them to the project

2023

• The focus for 2023 was preparing and submitting the zoning variance requests.
• Completed and submitted the zoning variance request application to the township
• Met with the Township Zoning Planning Commission to review the variances requested.
• Land engineering firm assembled a draft of the Land Development application

Building Committee Report 2019-2021

2019 to 2021 Highlights

2019

• First meeting of the Parish Development committee held in April 2019
• Visited both Holy Apostles church and Christ the Savior church to discuss their recent building programs
• Remediated the water leak issues in the basement
• Began search for an architect to assist in developing conceptual ideas for the church and fellowship hall

2020

• Contracted with Raphael Architects for the conceptual design and programming
• Covid-19 pandemic starts
• Switched to virtual focus groups to continue with the concept development and programming studies
• Received conceptual design and survey results from Raphael Architects

2021

• Ended relationship with Raphael Architects
• Contracted with Arch & Style to continue conceptual design
• Working with Arch & Style, finalized a set of floor plans and elevation drawings to present at the 2022 Parish Annual Meeting