Robert Pearce was selected as spokesperson for the neighborhood of the Biglane Heights Subdivision at the city board meeting on Tuesday night.
Pearce told the board of alderman that the neighbors in the subdivision were opposed to making their subdivision open through to McNair Springs. The issue is there is a church that is developing property on the backside of the subdivision and the neighbor does not support it because it was reported that the church plans to have a 700-member congregation. Along with vehicular traffic the residents were concerned about noise issues noting that when there are that many people it comes with “x” amount of noise.
The church, Bridgepoint, according to Pearce owns two pieces of property that adjoin the subdivision. Original plans had called for the subdivision to open up to McNair Springs but it was never developed and the residents bought lots to prevent that from happening, according to Pearce.
So a bulldozer showed up and started clearing land and Pearce told the operator he was on private property. This prompted to contact the pastor, John Lockett. Lockett made contact with Mr. Pearce and this is what prompted the group coming to the city meeting.
It was reported that there had been no building permits issued to start construction. However, just to do site prep it is not required according to David Dunn with the city.
Pearce owns the adjacent lots so he prevented the dozer from doing the work and posted a no trespassing sign. The board instructed Bruce Smith, board attorney, to research and determine what is on the property plots before any decisions can be made.
Berry mentioned that the board had approved only one access to a subdivision in Spring Lake, per the request of the residents and that was basically what the Biglane Heights residents were asking.
Pearce said there are currently covenants on the property restricting property use to R-1 which is a strictly residential and had a 30-year enforcement with an automatic renewal policy every ten years.
Pearce said he has no objection to the church locating behind the neighborhood he just doesn’t want the traffic. This is what prompted him in putting the no trespassing signs up on his property.
The Bridgepointe church is currently meeting in downtown Magee, on the side street across from The Vault.
