The
”
little country church on the corner
”
hopes to gain a little more visibility and a lot more elbow room
by moving to the northern edge of downtown Morgan Hill.
Morgan Hill – The “little country church on the corner” hopes to gain a little more visibility and a lot more elbow room by moving to the northern edge of downtown Morgan Hill.
After a decade at 280 Llagas Road, Shadow Mountain Baptist Church is looking to swap a quaint yellow building and white steeple for an office building at 17890 Monterey Road. The $6.5-million project includes plans to build a new auditorium and classrooms that could enable the church to double its membership and student enrollment.
“It’s always been the little country church on the corner,” said Pastor Kyle Haynes, referring to the church and Christian school nestled in a quiet residential neighborhood off Old Monterey Road. The church has operated in its 8,600-square-foot building since 1997, after taking over the 1.6-acre site from Valley Baptist Church.
“It has a certain curb appeal being there,” Haynes said. “We’re swapping that for frontage road in Morgan Hill proper. With the visibility, you can find it a lot easier than you can by accident.”
The new building, just south of the Morgan Hill House, is owned by the Zamora family. The space served as headquarters for the Morgan Hill Unified School District during the 1980s and, after renovations in the early 1990s, housed a series of commercial tenants, according to church business manager Gary Carter.
Shadow Mountain officials have big plans for the nearly three-acre property, he said, including the construction of a new auditorium with 400 seats — double the amount in its existing space. And for the first time since the church’s school opened seven years ago, students from Kindergarten through high school can look forward to an on-site library and computer and science labs, according to Principal Neil Warthan.
But the improvements will not happen overnight, Warthan said, explaining that religious services will take place in part of the 10,000-square-foot building facing Monterey Road while the church constructs a 12,000-square-foot-building at the rear of the property. Religious services will relocate to the auditorium in the new building once it is complete, freeing up space for classrooms and labs in the existing building, he said. One or two stories of additional classroom space will also flank the new building at the rear of the property.
“Once that’s finished, we’ll have a tremendous amount of room to grow,” said Warthan, who hopes to double the current enrollment of 100 students by the start of the fall 2009 school year.
But the biggest improvement that Pastor Haynes is anticipating?
Parking, he said, explaining that he has seen plenty of parishioners flee the lot before attending Sunday service due to a parking crunch. The current site has just 60 or so spaces, compared to the 200 spaces expected at its future home.
“We’re always looking to reach more people for the cause of Christ, and when you do that, it’s not a matter of ‘Build it and they will come,'” Haynes said. “It’s a matter of them already being here and making room for more.”
Though the deal is not yet finalized, officials are confident they will close escrow by mid-September and relocate by summer 2008.
