Mebane’s city council has unanimously approved a rezoning request for 22.57 acres at the corner of South Third Street and Gibson Road to allow for the construction of a daycare and future church for First Baptist Church of Mebane.
After less than 10 minutes of discussion Monday night, the council voted 5-0 to rezone 22.57 acres at 940 Gibson Road from light manufacturing to conditional office and institutional for the future church and daycare.
No one spoke against the project during a public hearing Monday night.
Stan Wheatley, who presented the plans to the council, said that First Baptist Church had concluded that additional daycare is needed in the community, given the number of young families moving into Mebane.
A 21,955-square foot day care center would built during the first phase of construction and would be able to accommodate between 150 and 300 children, based on plans that Wheatley presented to Mebane’s planning board last month.
The church bought the property 10 years ago for $682,500; its latest assessed value is listed at $805,241, according to Alamance County tax records.
The site of the future church and daycare is currently an empty field located within the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). Annexation would be required before future connection to city utilities, according to city officials.
Architectural renderings for the construction show a three-phase layout. The church hopes to break ground later this year on the daycare facility, according to Wheatley. A second phase calls for construction of an educational or Sunday School building within the next three to five years; and a sanctuary with seating for 500 to 800 people would be built as the third and final phase.
The buildings will back up to South Third Street, based on the architectural renderings. All three buildings will face out to a parking lot that will be entered by Gibson Road.
The daycare, with a fenced play area, will be next to Gibson Road, with the sanctuary ultimately being adjacent to residences along South Third Street and the Governor’s Green subdivision. Operating hours for the daycare would be 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
According to the preliminary plans, the church will construct a 5-foot wide sidewalk along both South Third Street and Gibson Road, initially in front of the daycare portion and then “extended with future development of the site” along all of both sides of the property’s frontage on both South Third Street and Gibson Road.
One proviso of the church’s rezoning request for the educational building and sanctuary was that they be approved without any specification of the layout of the future sanctuary, except that all future construction will comply with the city’s development standards and requirements.
The church’s current building would be sold after the church moves into its new facilities, according to Wheatley.
The site of the future First Baptist Church of Mebane is across the road from Florence Memorial Baptist at 939 Gibson Road.
