GUILDERLAND — Although the congregation is small, the minister of the quiet church just on the edge of town wants to triple its size. This has one neighbor concerned, as his house is already only a few feet from the existing building.

However, Steve Foti, the minister of Bethel Full Gospel Church, said he is willing to do whatever it takes to make his neighbors and the zoning board happy.

Last Wednesday, the zoning board continued the proposal made by the church, at 7315 Route 158, so an engineer can study the application.

The church is requesting a special-use permit to build a 48-by-120-foot addition onto the rear of the existing building. The addition will be used to seat a congregation of up to 186 people. It will also have a nursery, a kitchen, and three offices.

The existing building will then be converted to Sunday-school classrooms.

The church is also asking for a variance so it does not have to install a sidewalk on Route 158. The town has a sidewalk ordinance that states owners of any new buildings are required to put a sidewalk in front of their properties.

A sidewalk that starts and ends on the church’s property does not seem necessary, said Foti.
"Nobody, nobody walks down 158," he said. "At least not down our way." No one who attends the church walks to it, he added.

Foti has been with Bethel Full Gospel Church for two-and-a-half years. He is the third pastor to bring plans forward for expansion, but the first to get this far, he said.

He doesn’t like to think of the church as a business, he said, but it is. With a wife, two children, and bills to pay, Foti said this expansion is important for him.
"We’ll bend over backwards to make it agreeable," he said.

Neighbors’ concerns

Bethel Full Gospel Church is on a rural stretch of road, on the Guilderland and Rotterdam border. It has a vacant lot to the left, owned by Vince Viscusi, and a house, owned by Jim Torre, to the right.

Other houses on the road are dozens of feet apart.

Viscusi told the board last Wednesday that rainwater from the church’s property often floods his land. He worried about the septic tank proposed for the back of the property, he said.

Stormwater drainage will be collected by in-ground catch basins and piped away, Foti’s architect said.

Chairman Bryan Clenahan told Viscusi that a town-designated engineer will address stormwater runoff and drainage before the application can be approved. Foti later said he’ll do everything he can to alleviate drainage problems.

Next, Torre told the board of his concerns with the expansion.

Earlier in the meeting, Foti said that the way the church is currently constructed is a problem because building setback lines require the addition to be placed so close to Torre’s property.

The church is willing to reconfigure the placement of the addition, if allowed by the zoning board, Foti said. He is also willing to plant trees or add a fence for buffering between the two properties, he said.
"Mr. Torre has been a very good neighbor," Foti said. "We’ll do whatever we can do."

Before Torre spoke, he said he’s always gotten along well with members of the church. He said he was hesitant to state his concerns.
"I’ll continue to try to be the same neighbor," Torre said. "I won’t try to stop the project, but I’m here to raise concerns."
He said, "No matter how good things are now, if I had my choice, I would not have this."

Looking out his back window, he said, all he will see is the church addition and parking spaces.

For the project, 64 more parking spaces will be added to the side and rear of the building; the existing lot in front of the church will remain.

Foti said he is willing to eliminate the side parking, near Torre’s property.

Clenahan said this sounds like a good idea, if there would still be enough spaces.

In designing the plan, Foti said, the church is figuring on the maximum use possible. While it will build to seat a congregation of 186, the church currently has only a fraction of that number of congregants now, he said.
"When we did the septic, we tested it at 400 flushes in two hours," Foti said, laughing. "We don’t need that, unless we have Tex-Mex night at the church."

The current church is small and its parking lot has about 25 spaces. Torre said he’s never seen the lot full. Sundays, he said, 25 or 30 people attend church. On Wednesdays, he said, about 10 or 15 go to meetings there.
"Perhaps the project should be scaled back," Torre said. "Maybe it’s not my business, but I’m concerned with the finances of the church."

He asked if the church can afford to maintain such a large addition.
"Will the building end up in someone else’s hands that won’t be a good neighbor"" he asked.

Torre also asked about stormwater drainage and traffic. Cars often use the church parking lot to turn around, Torre said, and he worried about his young children playing nearby.

He suggested the church install speed bumps. Foti later said he’d be fine with speed bumps. He said he recently installed a sign that tells people not to make U-turns there.

The town board then appointed Boswell Engineering to examine issues such as drainage, traffic, water quality, and landscaping.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Continued a request made by David Fusco, of Fusco Enterprises, at 1769 Western Ave., for a use variance to demolish an existing car wash and build a new one. The board asked for more financial data, to prove that the car wash cannot make a reasonable rate of return in its current state.

Board members also asked that the applicant’s accountant be at the next meeting, since his attorney, Victor Caponera, was unable to answer questions interpreting the initial financial information submitted.