Harvest Faith wants West End expansion

1709 Central Avenue

Harvest Faith Fellowship Ministries wants City Council assistance to allow them to expand their West End operations.

The church is seeking a notwithstanding ordinance passed on property it owns at 1709 Central Avenue (BIRD'S EYE) so that they can expand their offices and worship space within the vacant warehouse.

They purchased the land in 1995, and a 2004 rezoning to MG Manufacturing General made the planned expansion for "religious assembly" use illegal.

Harvest Faith, which occupies several buildings in the vicinity, says that the new zoning has landlocked the organization and hurts its planned mission.

According to a statement supplied with their notwithstanding ordinance application, the church has taken invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into many blighted properties to turn them into productive facilities that "equip, train and empower neighborhood residents for a healthy, productive place in the city fabric, thereby creating positive economic impact as well as an improved operation of community."

City Council's Economic Development Committee will hold a public hearing on the ordinance on February 12.