Parking lot improvement project to proceed

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Parish Planning

Parking lot improvement project to proceed
By Bob Adams
May 19, 2004, 10:29

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After being given the Bishop's permission, parish plans for paving the parking lot will now proceed.

The surveyors will be updating the topographic map to include the five new acres which will give a truer picture as some changes have taken place. Then Chris and members of the Capital Improvement Committee will meet with the architect to finalize the plans and get a final and official set of drawings.

Plans are to move the retention pond set forth in the original plans down the hill onto the new five acres. This will preserve the more usable land for some future use. Most of the time the retention pond will be a shallow, dry depression in the ground and only when storm water is collected from the parking lot and delivered to the retention pond via a buried pipe will there be any water in the pond. Outlet pipes will release the water from the pond at a controlled rate and they will completely discharge the water over time.

The orientation of parking in the grassy lot will be rotated ninety degrees so that the lines of parked cars will be perpendicular to the main aisle of the church.

By doing this, more parking spaces can be created. This will also mean that when parking furthest from the church, parishioners will not have to cross travel lanes as they make their way to church.
The possibility of including walkways between some of the rows of cars to avoid having to walk in the lot itself is being investigated.

Lighting will also be included in the plan, including where light poles will be placed. If it is possible to fit them into the budget, lights will be added at this time. If not, the conduit which will provide electrical power to the light poles will still be buried and will avoid digging up the pavement later.

The landscape plan will try to maintain as much greenery in the islands and around the perimeter of the lots as possible. However, the line of cypress trees that currently separates the gravel lot adjacent to the church from the grassy overflow lot are too large to move and must be removed. However, cypress are fast-growing trees and they will be replaced with others that will grow quickly to the size of the ones that are there now.

The paving contractor has been contacted and has tentatively scheduled the work to begin early to mid-September when most summer visitors have left and before it gets too cold to pave.

After the project gets started, it will take two to three weeks to complete. We will work with the contractor to minimize the disruption, especially on weekends.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact any of the members of the Capital Improvement Committee.

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