Scope of church plan is drawing ire

DuPage County Board member Patrick O'Shea is quoted in the Daily Herald as saying, "Right now the church is only seeking approval for a conditional use for that area as a religious facility, and I have heard no testimony whatsoever at the hearings objecting to that." He also stated, "I've heard a lot about ancillary issues, but we aren't asked to vote on that - yet."

That statement is highly disingenuous in that Mr. O'Shea, a member of the development committee that voted to not approve the application, knows full well that in addition to conditional use for a religious institution, the application asks for conditional use for a planned development, under which guise the church is trying to build a church the height of a 10-story building, accommodating 1,500 to 1,900 people in the middle of a single-family residential area.

I do not, nor does anyone I know, object to use of the area for a religious institution. I do object to the scale of the planned development, the load it will place on the infrastructure of the area (roads, sewers, wells, stormwater drainage, etc.), the inclusion of a residential facility for up to 24 persons, a meeting area for 300 to 400 people with kitchen facilities to accommodate it and a separate chapel seating an additional 300 to 400 people. With current telecommunication capability, they could be holding services (two or more each Sunday) for up to 2,700 people at each service.

Both of these conditional uses will be voted on at the same time by the county board.

Robert C. Whitney

Winfield