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After meeting for more than a year in temporary quarters on Vineyard Avenue, members of the Living Room Church in Kennewick were ready to relocate to a permanent house of worship a few blocks away next to Schuck's auto parts store at Fourth Avenue and Olympia Street.
But the congregation is learning it may be easier to move a mountain than move into a commercial building where parking space is a premium.
Kennewick's Board of Adjustment im-posed additional conditions on a use permit for the church at a hearing Wednesday night.
The church's application for a conditional use permit to relocate to 325 W. Fourth Ave. was approved last summer by the city planning staff until the property owner at Schuck's announced two weeks later that the parts store was leaving and a grocery store would take its place.
A turf battle over the parking lot ensued.
Curtis R. Smelser, an attorney from Seattle representing Kin Properties Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., told the Kennewick Board of Adjustment on Wednesday night that the church wasn't a good fit for the commercially zoned property and that the church had a legal right to challenge the grocery store's license to sell beer and wine.
"The parking issue is a major concern, but almost equally important is the church is not a commercial use," Smelser said.
Once church officials learned that the grocery story could claim use to the majority of the parking lot at 315-325 W. Fourth Ave., they went down the street 400 feet and found offsite parking that would satisfy city officials.
Wes Romine, Kennewick's development services manager, said the 450-seat church needed to find a place for 65 more vehicles within 500 feet of the church.
But the quick fix for additional parking didn't satisfy Smelser, who argued that unless the board put more conditions on the use permit, church-goers might not use the offsite lot in the former Food Pavilion building that's now owned by the Kennewick School District.
"The parking solution is not enforceable. It can be withdrawn tomorrow and is not adequate," he said.
The church got school district officials to grant permission for the extra parking, but it is not a permanent arrangement.
Smelser also said Kin Properties objects to the church as a neighbor.
"You need to consider whether (the church's presence) is injurious to the commercial property. You've got a right and a duty to consider that," Smelser told the board.
The attorney said church officials' promise not to object to beer and wine sales wasn't good enough. He said it should be in writing.
No one from the church attended the board meeting, which ran for an hour, followed by a 40-minute closed board discussion about the dispute.
Rather than deny the use permit, the board chose to add more conditions. They include requiring the church to "enforce, monitor and regulate" to ensure that Sunday worshippers do not park outside the church's designated parking areas, that they provide the city a written statement they will not object to reasonable commercial activity at the store's location and that they notify the city within 10 days if the school district withdraws the offsite parking agreement.
The board also wants the church to pay for installing a new crosswalk across West Fourth Avenue at Mayfield Street, if recommended by the city's traffic engineer.
-- John Trumbo: 582-1529; jtrumbo@tricityherald.com
