GAINESVILLE – A pair of zoning requests made by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta easily made their way through “first reading” at Tuesday evening’s Gainesville City Council meeting, passing unanimously and without any public comment in opposition.
Some might say heaven is smiling on an effort to build a 1200-seat Catholic church on the site of a former golf-driving and instructional range, Golf Academy, but it could be years before St. John Paul II Catholic Mission celebrates their first communion.
John Schiavone, Director of Real Estate Development for the Archdiocese, said that day is still a long way off. “Maybe two years,” Schiavone estimated, “yeah, two years would be aggressive.”
“It takes quite a while to break ground and then it takes another year to build, typically,” he explained.
The zoning requests brought by the Archdiocese concern two adjacent properties on S. Smith Road, near its intersection with Cherry Hill Drive on Gainesville’s west side, and total 19.132 acres.
The next step in the process will be the required “second reading” and final vote by the City Council, scheduled for August 18th.
Schiavone said if rezoning is approved at that meeting, and after a thirty- day waiting period for any appeals to the rezoning, the Archdiocese would close on their purchase of the properties.
Details on the proposed church complex are still being determined, Schiavone said. “The only planning we’ve done is the preliminary planning we’ve needed to do to come before the Council…we’ve still got a good bit of architectural design, fund raising and permitting.
Patience, according to Galatians chapter five, is one of the fruits of the spirit and will be developed as the burgeoning Catholic community in Hall County waits, looking forward to the new facility.
“This is NOT to accommodate growth that isn’t here,” Schiavone said. “The people that are going to fill those seats are already worshipping at St. Michael’s or another facility they lease on Shallowford Road.”
