FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to reject a church's rezoning request that would have allowed it to build a sanctuary on industrially zoned land next to Interstate 95.

According to the Fayetteville Observer, on Nov. 18 the commissioners apologized to the Cumberland Christian Center for their decision and pledged to help it find another location. But they remained firm in their stance that the site is too valuable in the county's effort to attract economic development.

"We need jobs, good jobs and high-paying jobs," Commissioner John Henley said. "And sometimes you have to be at the right place at the right time when the Lord finally says put something in this county to get us growing. I think this is one time where that property is actually zoned the way it should be."

The church has about 1,500 members and worships in a renovated warehouse in east Fayetteville.

A crowd of about 150 church members and supporters filled the meeting room at the courthouse and spilled into a lobby. Michael Jones, a Durham, N.C., lawyer who represented the church, said after the meeting he did not know the church's next move.

"It's sort of a blow here," he said. "It's a disappointment."

Jones said the church eventually would have expanded beyond the 38 acres it wanted to build housing for the elderly, a strip mall and other projects. Lucas Industries of North America owns the 38 acres.

The site where the church wanted to build is part of a larger area of up to 1,000 acres that has been shown to five "active prospects" in the past 2 1/2 years, according to John Swope, vice president of the Fayetteville Area Economic Development Corporation (FAEDC). One prospect was an unidentified automobile manufacturer, which had picked the county among four finalists nationwide in the fall of 2000. The automaker has since delayed its plans and has not yet chosen a site, Swope said.

FAEDC chairman Dan Dederick said the county is losing jobs to South Carolina and Georgia, and that unless it gets "access to this I-95 site, we are not going to be a key player" in creating more jobs.

The church was prepared to buy the land and begin a $10 million construction project next spring. Lucas Industry's real estate agent, Bob Van Wormer of Raleigh, said the amount of interest the property had attracted in the past three years was "almost nothing."

"Until we heard from the church, we have really had no takers at all, at any price," he said.

Commissioner Tal Baggett agreed that the 38-acre site was insignificant to the available land but said he worried about the effect on the church if industry sprung up around it.

"In my opinion, a worship service and heavy manufacturing do not go together well," he said. "I think there are inherent problems with both."