SCIO TOWNSHIP, Mich.—Neighbors say a planned addition to Shekinah Christian in Scio Township is too much growth for the area

According to the Ann Arbor News, the rapidly growing congregation wants to double the size of its church by adding room for 1,200 worshipers by adding onto the existing church, which currently holds about 550 people. The church also wants to increase its parking lot to hold 400 cars instead of the present 194.

Neighbors say that's just too big, and call it a "convention"-sized building that will disturb the natural environment and the ambiance of the neighborhood. The church is surrounded by low-density housing, open space and farm fields.

Senior pastor Barbara Yoder said the church bought the adjoining 20 acres in 1991 so it would have room to expand. The church's only other choice, Yoder said, would be to buy land elsewhere and move.

The church's membership has grown from 180 to 500 in the last two years, Yoder said.

Neighbor Keith Smillie said the enlarged church would be a visual distraction, its parking lot lights would cause light pollution, it would increase traffic in the area, put a larger demand on township services and could cause environmental damage from things like rain runoff.

"That is far beyond the anticipated use of that property by the neighborhood," he said.

Another neighbor, Margaret Howes, said she is happy for the church's success, but she is worried that the size of the proposed expansion would disturb the environment.

"It's just too big and too ambitious for this setting," Howes said.

She said she understood the church was to be 50 feet high, which would obstruct the view of the sunrise "that all of us enjoy."

The church recently asked for and got the land rezoned from "agricultural" to "estate residential." The church had to seek the rezoning because a few years ago the township disallowed churches in agricultural zones, which would have made the expansion impossible.

The church still must seek a conditional use permit and submit a site plan, neither of which it has yet done.

Township Trustee Gordon Darr, who is a member of the planning commission, said the rezoning was approved in part as a matter of fairness to the church, which had bought the land when the zoning would have allowed an expansion.