Recently, as a church family we had a discussion around a bit of land that God has blessed us with. The discussion was part of a brunch Celebration affair and as you will see below all ages participated. We wanted to make the results available to our church family as we look forward.
The responses were all quite varied. I’m going to try to categorize them all under as few headings as I can. The two obvious ones are “sell” and “keep” but some people who seemed to be in favour of us keeping the land also seemed to suggest that we develop it (e.g. Build a seniors residence, low income housing, etc.) For the sake of simplicity all development ideas are placed under the heading “Develop the Land”
The full document includes the data in two formats. The first lists the ideas in order from most to least frequent. The second lists each individual response on a separate line, alphabetized.
Sell the Land and use the money for (15)
5 – Church expansion – youth/youth building, gym, daycare, Sunday school classes
4 – Community/Social needs (Keep Lot #44, keep half the money)
2 – Missions / Outreach
2 – Invest in Endowment fund – use the interest for Outreach and special projects
1 – Capital projects (half)
1 – Bus ministry (seniors, families and children)
Keep the Land (50)
| 12 | Park – baseball diamond, Basketball courts, Volleyball sand pits, skate park – open for community use – weddings, showers, picnics, church BBQ – |
| 9 | Community Garden (one suggested this be “short-term”) |
| 4 | Pavilion/Gazebo (wired for sound)– picnic tables in the summer available to the community – ice rink in the winter |
| 4 | Gym funded by sale of portion of land uses-Youth YFC, Community/Outreach events |
| 3 | Dog Park |
| 2 | Let it sit for now – when in doubt do nothing |
| 2 | Community Recreation Centre (Multiple use with emphasis on Youth) |
| 2 | Church Expansion – for Children/youth – (sell enough to raise funds for) |
| 2 | Bouncy Castle – giant, permanent, Barbie design |
| 1 | Spiritual Garden |
| 1 | Soup Kitchen |
| 1 | Paintball / Airsoft arena |
| 1 | Indoor swimming pool |
| 1 | High ropes course |
| 1 | Gun range |
| 1 | Golf course |
| 1 | Frisbee Golf |
| 1 | Fish Pond |
| 1 | Daycare – rooms to be used for Children’s Ministry |
Develop the Land (21)
| 8 | Seniors / Retirement Apartments |
| 4 | Community Recreation Centre – after school programs with free books, drones, MacBooks TVs |
| 3 | Affordable housing/apartments – to generate income |
| 2 | Housing for single and/or trafficked women |
| 1 | Amusement park |
| 1 | Christian school |
| 1 | Palliative Care hospice |
| 1 | YMCA |
Ideas Listed Individually
Sell the Land and use the money for
- Bus ministry (seniors, families and children)
- Capital projects (half)
- Church expansion
- Community and social groups (half)
- Community needs (Keep Lot #44)
- Counselling for drug, alcohol or whatever – help the for homeless
- Foodbank (local) and soup kitchen
- Gym/Daycare Fund building projects
- Invest
- Invest in Endowment fund – use only the interest for Outreach and special projects
- Missions
- Youth
- Youth building – they said sell the land and use the money for a youth building
Keep the Land
- Basketball Court (i.e. concrete pad)
- Bouncy Castle – giant, permanent, Barbie design
- Bouncy Castles
- Church Expansion – (sell enough to raise funds for)
- Church Expansion – Children’s ministry – Youth Ministry
- Community Garden
- Community Garden
- Community Garden
- Community Garden
- Community Garden
- Community Garden
- Community Garden
- Community Garden(short-term)
- Community Recreation Centre
- Community Recreation Centre (Multiple use with emphasis on Youth)
- Daycare – rooms to be used for Children’s Ministry
- Dog Park
- Dog Park
- Dog Park
- Fish Pond
- Food co-op – healthy food for people in need
- Frisbee Golf
- Gazebo
- Golf course
- Gun range
- Gym
- Gym – (sell enough to raise funds for)
- Gym – sell enough to fund
- Gymnasium – for youth or YFC use, community events, outreach
- Highropes course
- Indoor swimming pool
- Let it sit for now
- Let it sit for now – when in doubt do nothing
- Paintball / Airsoft arena
- Park
- Park – baseball diamond – open for community use – weddings, showers, picnics, church BBQ –
- Park – Football field
- Park – for children
- Park (landscaped and seeded)
- Park setting
- Park with playground for kids) and picnic tables
- Pavilion
- Pavilion
- Pavilion (wired for sound)– picnic tables in the summer available to the community – ice rink in the winter
- Play ground
- Sand Pits for volleyball courts
- Skate park
- Soup Kitchen
- Spiritual Garden
- Sunday School classes
Develop the Land
- Affordable housing
- Affordable housing/apartments
- Amusement park
- Available for rentals (family functions like weddings etc.)
- Christian school – seemed to imply we keep it and develop this ourselves
- Community Recreation Centre
- Community Recreation Centre – after school programs
- Housing for single women
- Housing for trafficked women
- Non-profit Housing to generate income – seemed to imply we keep it and develop this ourselves
- Palliative Care hospice
- Retirement Apartments
- Senior residence
- Senior’s High-rise with parkland (adamant that we don’t sell it)
- Senior’s Housing
- Senior’s Housing (a row)
- Senior’s housing (affordable)
- Seniors apartments (Keep the property)
- Seniors retirement
- YMCA
- Youth Centre – facilities for children/youth – with free books, drones, MacBooks TVs
- Youth Facility
Before we make any decision I think we should invite representatives from various community support groups to see where there are real gaps in the community that we might support in various ways.
Total agree with Judy’s comment.