Parking Lot Team

For the last few months, a team of people from our congregation has been meeting monthly to research and problem solve our parking lot problems. What is the problem? On some Sundays (especially festival Sundays and/or Sundays when there’s special activities going on) there are pinch points when the parking lot is overcrowded and spots can’t be found. It isn’t all Sundays, and it isn’t all morning on any given Sunday, but there are times.

There was a lot of input from the congregation – thank you! We explored a lot of options and allowed every idea (even if it seemed crazy) to be considered. Ideas like: purchasing land near the church for extra parking, but none could be had; purchasing land across division and putting in a pedestrian overpass, but the land was only for lease and an overpass seemed extremely expensive; building a parking garage (below ground seemed cost prohibitive, but above ground seems extreme while we’re still paying on a mortgage); an overflow lot with shuttle buses, but do we buy the buses or pay the fees to hire a service? That may still be something to consider and pursue at some point, but with the reality that it isn’t optimal and may not be taken advantage of by congregants.

What we have decided on for the time being is to work with the county to widen the north entrance/exit onto Graves Rd. to help with the flow in and out of the parking lot. While it doesn’t add spots, it will help with congestion. Also, two neighboring businesses have graciously offered to allow our people to park at their businesses on Sunday mornings: Spokane North Trailers on Division, across Graves Rd. to the north of us; and Dynamic Dental Care next door to the north of the trailer business. Both are within walking distance. On high volume Sundays (like March 8 when the Whitworth Orchestra will be here, and Palm Sunday, and Easter Sunday) we will need volunteers to be in the parking lot near the end of service and beginning of the following services to help direct people to these alternative lots.

While these are some temporary helps, they don’t resolve the problem in the bigger picture. The big picture problem is that if lots and seats feel too full, people won’t come. The old rule of thumb has always been that if you’re at 80% capacity you need to move or make room because you are starting to turn people away. We are beyond that most Sundays. We have grown by 13%, 10%, & 15% the last three years but continued growth is unsustainable if we don’t have the capacity to hold more people and cars. Responding to that is not trying to manufacture growth but allowing for it. It’s a great problem to have, but it’s still a problem that needs to be addressed. We have some initial steps, please pray for further ones.

Your brother in Christ,

Pr. Jim