COVINGTON, Ga. – Covington residents may soon be able to enjoy a new church. The Covington city council unanimously approved a special use permit (SUP) for Wesley Methodist Church.

The proposed site is located at 70 McGuirts Bridge Road, a site that has been the talk of potential developments for years now. The property, which is a little over 30 acres, will provide 250-300 seats for guests. According to the plan, it will have around 60 parking spots and will not affect traffic on the two lane road. 

The council was presented with the proposal for a special permit allowing for the creation of a place of worship on land greater than 10 acres and relief to the requirement of a hundred feet of public road frontage. 

Covington’s planning commission recommended a multitude of conditions that should be met if the SUP gets approved. These conditions include:

• That the applicant must complete required road improvements.
• A detailed landscaping and buffering plan must be approved.
• The site must comply with zoning regulations.
• The applicant must demonstrate that the reduced public road frontage will not cause safety concerns.
• Any future expansions of the place of worship, change of ownership or changes to the site must require reevaluation and additional street improvements may be required during development.  

During the public hearing portion of the discussion, council members heard from longtime resident Steven Smith.

Smith and his wife have been residents in the area for over 30 years. His home is only 0.2 miles from the church's entrance and because of the close proximity, he came to support the project. 

“My personal opinion is it’s a great fit for our neighborhood and a great fit for the city of Covington,” Smith said. 

Other neighbors in the area were also spoken to, and according to Jeff Wagner, co-chair of the leadership team at Wesley Midlands Church, they had unanimous positive feedback. 

Wagner said that their goal is to give young families a place to go worship and raise children so the church will also provide a Sunday school. 

But city attorney Frank Turner Jr. wanted to make sure that the conditions met the city’s standards.

Specifically, Turner had issues with how the commission worded the fifth requirement which read, “Any future expansions of the place of worship, change of ownership or changes to the site must require reevaluation.”

Turner stated that special use permits are not typically affected by a change of ownership. 

“Changing the ownership alone doesn’t change anything out there as far as intensity of use,” Turner said. 

Turner recommended instead to create specific criteria that will apply to future owners. 

The city attorney also had problems with the fourth requirement reading, “ The applicant must demonstrate that the reduced public road frontage will not cause safety concerns.” 

Turner questioned whose decision it would be to decide this. Because of this, he believed it to be an unconstitutional delegation of power to unelected staff. 

“I don’t think you can delegate that to staff to figure that out for you,” Turner said. 

After further discussion, the council decided to remove the fourth requirement and change the fifth requirement to specifically need reapproval if the owner expands beyond 400 seats and/or if a school is added.

Councilman Jared Rutberg made the motion to approve the decisions with edited requirements with councilman Anthony Henderson seconding, leading to the unanimous approval.