The congregation of the Harvest International Christian Church of Canada is hoping to build a new church in Humboldt.
Pastor Mishael Capian said there’s a need for a new church because the congregation is growing.
“For almost four years, we’ve been renting a room at the Uniplex,” he said.
They started off in the smallest meeting room, Room 1. Since then, they’ve grown to take up all three meeting rooms on Sundays.
Capian said he talked to the board about the amount they were spending to rent.
“We decided to have our own building,” he said.
“We were advised that it was better to build a new one than to buy a old building and spend a lot renovating or something like that.”
They are in the process of buying land on 2nd Street just north of Futuristic Industries and asking the city to rezone it to allow them to build their new house of worship.
At its Jan. 28 meeting, council voted to move forward with the rezoning process. Rob Muench, Humboldt’s mayor, said the process is in its first stages.
“Now there is a procedure that they need to go through to have that rezoned,” he said.
Anybody with property within 75 metres of the possible church site will receive a letter informing them of the development and the public hearing where they can have a say. There will also be notice in the newspaper and online.
The hearing is planned for Feb. 11’s council meeting, which is also the same meeting council will consider a bylaw change that lowers the requirement for the number of parking spots a new church has to provide. The current requirement is three parking spots for every 10 seats, while the proposal reduces that down to one spot for every 10 seats.
