New City: Zone change could turn vacant home into house of worship

A Chestnut Ridge church is looking to turn a vacant single-family home in New City into a satellite offering services to congregants who live nearby.

The .7-acre tax-exempt property at 684 Route 304 is owned by Gibson Meeting Halls Inc., which is affiliated with the Foster Church, a non-denominational Christian church on South Pascack Road in Chestnut Ridge.

The owners want to establish Plymouth Brethren Christian Church in the two-story building that's separated from Route 304 by trees a wooden fence.

The owners are seeking a zone change from single-family to house of worship, a use that complies with town code because the property is located along a state road.

The proposal was scheduled to go before Clarkstown's Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday but it's been referred to the Planning Board for site plan review. No date has been set.

The Montebello-based Gibson acquired the property in 2012 for $292,000, according to land records.

The owners are not seeking to knock down the house but will renovate the interior, Loren Ware, a Foster Church trustee, said Thursday. A free-standing garage on the property would remain.

There would be no signage but some changes would be made to the narrow entrance off the busy state road, which is just south of Germonds Road.

The house appears to have been unused for a long period of time and is partially draped by vines and overgrown shrubbery.

The church would only be used two days a week — Sunday morning communion services and Monday evening prayer meetings — for about 40 people from the area, Ware said.

The services would be low key, he added, and no other events would be held on the property.

Foster Church already has a similar satellite church off Rustic Drive in Airmont, Ware said.

Clarkstown Councilman Patrick Carroll, who represents Ward 4, which includes the proposed property, said residents deserved to have their concerns addressed about traffic, environmental considerations, and preserving neighborhood character.

"That’s why my colleagues and I recently passed a law requiring any non-residential use (in a residential zone) to get both site plan approval from the planning board and approval from the architectural review board," he wrote in an email.

Carroll said he would not comment specifically on the church's proposal, but said the new law applies to that project.

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