Agenda - Planning Commission - 10/01/1996

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I. INTRODUCTION Lord of Life Lutheran Church is alive and flourishing with the Spirit of God and, as a result, has been experiencing a tremendous growth in membership, attendance and giving in the 1990's. And that growth is quickly outgrowing the ability of the present facilities to serve its congregation. This growing family of Christ will require additional building space, more parking and improved aceess to fulfill its vision for the future. Renewed by a vision received by Paster Blair Anderson in April 1994, Lord of Life Church has developed and adopted Vision 2005, a strategic plan for the church for the next i0 years with an objective of: "By the year 2005, to be ministering to no less than 10,000 souls who are committed to becoming radical followers of the Lord Jesus Christ". The church's Long Range Planning Committee is now developing a Master Plan to guide the growth and development of the campus in order to fulfill that Vision and Strategic Plan. As of JanuarY 1996, Lord of Life Lutheran Church had a membership of 2161 parishioners with a total average attendance each Sunday of about t,000 worshippers at four (4) regularly scheduled service as summarized in Table 1 below: TABLE 1: CURRENT CHURCH SCHEDUI.E AND ATrENDANCE WORSHIP SERVICE ST mrn O znvre 8:o0 AM 9:0o AM 10:15 AM 11:30 AM TOTAL 1995 AVERAGE ATrENDANCE 50 400 400 EXPECTED ATTENDANCE AT SANCTUARY CAPACITY 100 450 450 150 200 1000 1200 The current sanctuarY capacity of 450 worshippers per service is expected to be reached during 1996 with the total Sund~y attendance being 1200 worshippers as summarized above. Therefore, an immediate need for additional :'worship space is readily apparent. In addition, the existing church parking facilities of approximately 235 stalls are already inadequate to meet the current d~.mand of approximately 300 stalls and a projected need of 325-350 stalls to serve 1200 parishioners each Sunday. This parking space need is based upon: 1) actual counts conducted by the church showing an average automobile occupancy rate of 2 persons per vehicle; 2) providing parking spaces for the rworship service currently in session; and 3) providing parking for half of the next service who will arrive and park before the current worship service is concluded. Furthermore, the.current 2-lane (1 lane entering and 1 lane exiting) church access onto County State Aid Highway //5 {Nowthen Boulevard) at about 145th Avenue is very inadequate and results in major congestion and conflict, both at the CSAH/g5 access point and within the parking lot area, between those leaving from one service and those arriving for the next service. Iq