Residential neighborhoods should be sacred ground. A person's home is not just a castle; it's also a sanctuary. There's an emotional investment in homes that have been built and cared for over decades by families who respect the character of their neighborhood.
Keeping big businesses at a reasonable distance from quiet neighborhoods is the prickly job of the municipality, whose zoning codes are supposed to guide development. Wal-Marts with acres of parking lots are located in areas of town where they share space with other businesses.
Nothing new here and certainly not evidence of an anti-business agenda on the part of the municipality.
The Rabbit Creek neighborhood in South Anchorage is a community whose residents take pride in preserving what attracted them there in the first place. I have visited that neighborhood and have seen the unpaved, tree-lined roads that meander off Rabbit Creek Road. It's a quiet area sheltered from the fast track of commerce.
But this community has had to confront the big plans of Rabbit Creek Community Church.
Modest neighborhood churches are vital to residential communities. Sometimes, though, a church's ambition can overtake modesty and it's off to the races. It is a free country and churches, like everyone else, are entitled to their dreams. But it's not very neighborly when those ambitions intrude on the serenity of an established neighborhood, where the inhabitants find spiritual communion when strolling their tree-lined gravel roads without increased traffic, pollution and noise.
Rabbit Creek residents have been dealing with the prospect of such intrusions as the church wants to get into the big-church business. Residents have dealt with it for some time at several Municipal Zoning and Planning meetings and the Assembly has sided with them on all counts. The church is now going to federal court to fight the municipality over this challenge to its expansion plans.
The church argues that the municipality is discriminating against religious activity. That's a faulty accusation. It's an attempt to turn the focus of the controversy from the sizable impacts of its expansion to something "sinister."
Church attorney Ronald Baird says, the municipality discriminates "as soon as you say you're going to have religious services." But Rabbit Creek Community Church has been in the neighborhood for some time. If the attorney's charge were true, the church would not have gotten off the ground in the first place. This dispute is not about holding religious services.
For a neighborhood without city water and sewer, increased demands on local well water and drainage can easily cause long-term problems for surrounding homeowners. These are legitimate concerns with no motive to eradicate houses of worship.
Church spokesmen say they anticipate a growing congregation. Put another way, "Build it and they will come."
The Rev. Terry Hill says that what he sees in his crystal ball is a "life development center." This doesn't sound like adding more pews or increasing the size of the coffee hour room. It sounds like the start of a march to K-12 church schools, sport complexes, church camp housing etc. More traffic, pollution and noise will follow, as an increasing number of people outside the neighborhood flock to services and other activities.
In Anchorage, there are a few large life development centers that probably started out as meek and humble neighborhood churches. They envisioned big "doings" and are drawing large crowds. But they do so in areas more suitable for that kind of growth.
If Rabbit Creek Community Church wants to follow the trend, great. It's within its rights. Instead of going to court, why not be a good neighbor and move to a commercially zoned area?
Lita Oppegard lives in Eagle River.
LITA OPPEGARD
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