Watch as Greg talks us through the long-term master plan for the Garden Suburb site and what “stage 1” will look like…
As we look at developing the site for stage 1, we’re very keen that it’s developed with stage 2 in mind. So, with that goal, we’ve wanted to get a very clear picture of what our final development and use of the wite will look like 20 years in the future.
And here it is. Well - this is how it looks at the moment.
Lots of parking
You’ll notice that quite a lot of the current greenspace is probably going to end up as a car park. This is simply due to the fact that parking is one of the non-negotiable aspects of any church site. We want to plan for enough car spots on site to make it easy for new people to come and feel welcome. We also have council regulations that dictate the number of spaces we need to provide on-site.
A new building on the Northern part of the site
The long-term plan is to build a new auditorium on the Northside of the existing church building. Part of the reason for here is the RFS regulations we need to follow. This new building will have two main spaces… a new auditorium for church, and a new lounge/foyer (with a cafe) for things like Life, Connect Series, and much more.
A clever staging strategy
One great thing about this plan is that we can build part of it in stage 1.
The plan is to construct the first 20% - 25% of that new building (the section closest to the existing church building). When we get access to the property that section will act as our lounge/foyer until we build stage 2.
Repurpose the church for kids
While we’re in stage 1, we’ll have church services in the existing church building (see more details on that). Then when we move church into the new auditorium, we’ll do a re-fit out of that church building as a brand new youth and children’s learning space.
Making best use of the spaces
As you can see from the plan, every area of the plan really needs to earn its place and sometimes do double duties. One idea we have is for the Western car park to be grassed such that kids might be able to run around on it before and after church and during programs like Rush and Youth.
So, assuming Jesus doesn’t return before any of this, and with the wonderful assurance that God may have his own plans, here’s what the HBC Building timeline looks like at it stands…
Nov 2021 Deed conditions were met - triggering an 18 month holding period.
Dec 2021 Develop a long-term master plan for site development with architect
Jan 2022 Develop the stage 1 plans with architect
Mar 2022 HBC submits DA application
Jul 2022 Begin tender process for builders
Dec 2022 Council DA approved
May-June 2023 Contract settlement
July 2023 Demo and construction of stage 1 begins on site
April 2024 Construction completed and we move into Stage 1
As you can see, this is quite a long-term project! Please pray for our building committee and staff as those who manage this make decisions that will impact how we use the site for years to come.
Great news! The final component of the contracts has been passed… the current owners of the Garden Suburb property have got their DA Approval for their new building on their other site!
Armed with that piece of information, we’ve paid the balance of the purchase deposit ($525,000).
And that means that the contract is. now. in. force.
Very exciting. In 18 months the settlement period (called the Call Option window) will begin, we’ll tell them that we want to execute the deed, and that will trigger the settlement period. And then… then we’ll own it.
And construction can begin :)
As we look at doing development on the Garden Suburb site, there are various controls and restrictions that we have to take into account. One of these is the Rural Fire Service Bushfire hazard rules. These rules look at things like how far away a building is from a forest, what access in and out of a property there should be, what bushfire fighting resources are available, etc.
They also stipulate things like the type of materials that need to be used in any new construction; e.g. how fire-retardant they need to be.
The Bushfire consultants have come back to us with some really helpful principles that will shape any future development and construction.
This map shows the affected bushfire hazard areas (in the future - when there is more residential development in the South-Eastern area). The orange shaded area has some restrictions about the type of buildings that can be built there.
There are a few key points that help us as we plan ahead:
We probably can’t ‘expand’ the existing church building - in such a way to increase its seating capacity. Doing that could cause an RFS review of whether a church building can be in that particular spot.
We probably can’t build ‘classrooms’ in that area, since new classrooms will probably have to get built a certain distance away from the bushfire hazard.
We can keep using the existing building for church and classrooms. That’s fine because they are already used for those purposes.
We can build around the existing buildings; things like a foyer and storage shed.
With these principles in place, we have started discussing them with our Architect and working out good solutions for how best to develop on the site to serve the gospel in years to come.
Watch a brief video on where things are up to with the property process…
The building committee has been working away over the past few months on lots of things.
First, we’re all still waiting on the Council to approve the current owner’s DA submission for their new building. They told us everything is looking good for that, it’s just a matter of time.
We’ve ordered a full site survey for the property - this will provide a base for all future plans and architectural drawings.
We’ve arranged a Fire Hazzard Assessment to see what implications the trees to the south of the property might have on any future development.
We’re scoping out what we might need the site to be in 20-30 years so we can make stage 1 plans accordingly; things like how many car spaces and classrooms we’ll need.
We’re looking at which parts of the property and land can we use tax-deductible funds for… There will be about $1.7m in property purchase costs that we can’t use tax-deductible funds for. We hope to be able to raise all of that $1.7m, however, we might need to get a loan for some of that cost.
We’ve been working towards setting a renovation budget… not too big.. not too small.
Watch an update from Greg about signing the contracts for the Garden Suburb site…
Great news, we have a signed contract for the Garden Suburb property! It’s been such a long time coming it seems a bit surreal.
The contract has all the elements in it that we were anticipating:
Conditional on the current owners getting their DA approved
18 delay between their DA approval and when we finally settle and take control of the property.
The sale price is $5.25m + gst.
Please thank God that we’ve made it this far.
See update from Greg about where things are at with the Garden Suburb property…
The contract that we’re working towards has a few things worth detailing:
It will have a condition that the current owners get DA approval for their new building construction. So, in the unlikely event they can’t get DA approval, we’ll get our deposit back.
It will have an 18 month settlement period, from the date they get their DA approval to give them time to build their new building on their new site.
In the meantime we’re starting to think into what the long-term plans should look like on the site as a place we can preach the gospel from for generations to come.
We’re also moving towards a new series on giving towards the building that will start in a few months.