The proposed site of Northside Church in North Albany looked like this on June 23, 2026.
Two days before Independence Day, Benton County got around to announcing that a July 7 public hearing on a North Albany land use issue has been postponed.
As reported here on June 23, the new hearing date is Aug. 4.
On its website, the county posted a news release about the postponement on July 2.
It said notification of the new hearing date would be sent to interested parties via mail or email. There was no explanation of why the county had not notified people of the postponement earlier.
Via email, the North Albany Neighborhood Association passed along the county’s news release on Independence Day.
The hearing, before the Benton County Board of Commissioners on appeal from the planning commission’s denial, concerns an application by Northside Church, Albany.
The church is asking for a conditional use permit to build an 18,902-square-foot worship and multi-purpose building for up to 500 people, plus a storage building and parking lot, on a 19-acre field at 4500 Powers Ave. NW, in a rural-residential zone. (hh)
It was postponed due to an overwhelming amount of submissions in support of the church. The county needed more time to effectively read all the submissions and consider each one.
Gawd! Sounds like the “fear of God” (which is what religion is all about and why it began…as a way to control people) is being used by the Northside Church to try to overwhelm the County Board and get things to fall in line for the church.
I think the county commissioners should support this. I think it would be great to see a new church be built in North Albany. I will be praying for this issue and will get other people to pray too
Northside was denied because it’s a horrible location!
This is zoned RR2 for a good reason and putting a monstrosity like they are proposing is horrendous.
You are absolutely right !!!
Appreciate support for church; also appreciate good roads, schools, hospitals and doctors, clean parks, police availability, grocery stores and city lots not have weeds. Must be my priorities different.
I really doubt this was postponed due to testimony in favor of the church. The opposition in the neighborhood of the proposed church is far greater than the people in favor of it. Who are the people who say it would be great? They are not affected by this obviously. This is RR2 zoning residential … not for a mega facility with hundreds of people between peoples houses!!! This is ridiculous !!!!
Yes, a church is needed for all those North Albany sinners. I understand that they were notorious for speeding through school zones.
Something crooked going on with all these good Christians… all this newly submitted material, the fact that they changed their original proposal.. ridiculous.
Be sure to go to the savingpower.com site and donate to the legal fund
Quote from email from Benton county planning division:
“The appeal hearing before the Board of Commissioners was scheduled for July 7. Because of the significant amount of supporting material submitted by the applicant, County Planning staff requested and were granted an extension to thoroughly review the materials and create a staff report with recommendations.”
It would be useful to know where all those people that are supporting it live in relation to the proposed church site. Will they have to live with the increase in traffic to the area?