Hoffman Estates denies church parking lot

More than a dozen residents who live near Hoffman Park rejoiced Monday after the Hoffman Estates village board unanimously voted to deny a request from a nearby Christian church to build a parking lot on the open space.

The Alliance Fellowship Church, 655 Grand Canyon St., filed a request earlier this year to expand its current parking lot of 148 spaces to one with 304 spaces due to an increase in membership and the inconvenience of street parking for parishioners, according to a village staff report.

But neighbors expressed twice — once at a meeting last month and again on Monday — that they would rather have parked cars line their streets once a week than lose the more than 2 acres of green space that Hoffman Park, located near the intersection of Illinois Boulevard and Glendale Lane, offers them.

The space is owned by both the village and the Hoffman Estates Park District.

Besides a bigger parking lot, the church, which is under the direction of Pastor Jason Kim and caters to the Korean community, requested a second-floor classroom addition and a detention pond.

On Aug. 3 the village’s planning and zoning commission voted 8-3 to not recommend the approval of the plans. Nine residents voiced their concerns with the expansion at that meeting.

Many of the same complaints were heard again on Monday night by neighbors who donned green beads around their neck to show their support for saving the green space.

Some neighbors simply argued that people of all ages use the park daily, including in the winter to go sledding, and that building a parking lot would be detrimental to the park’s future use.

Many of the residents in attendance also said the village failed to contact them about the date of Monday’s meeting and said they were disappointed they had to find out details from neighbors who were notified. However, those concerns came second to the anticipation of the village board’s vote, which they greeted with applause.

Village officials said the Alliance Fellowship Church would have to wait a year before making another request for expansion.