Benton County Commissioners, from left, Gabe Shepherd, Nancy Wyse and Patrick Malone listen during Tuesday’s hearing on the Northside Church’s conditional use permit application.
It will be September before the Benton County Commissioners decide whether to allow the Northside Christian Church to build a campus in a rural residential zone outside the city limits in North Albany.
The commissioners Tuesday held a nearly five-hour public hearing on the church’s request, which had been denied by the planning commission and was before the county board on appeal.
Then they agreed to allow an additional 21 days — seven for the applicant to present additional testimony, seven more for opponents of record to respond to that material, and finally seven more days for final arguments by the applicant.
The additional time period ends on Aug. 25. The three commissioners then plan to deliberate on Sept. 1. If they make a decision, the county planning staff will take time to write findings supporting that decision, and the findings presumably will come up for a vote to adopt them on a Tuesday after that.
The church wants to build a 28,000-square-foot worship and multipurpose building for up to 500 people along with a storage building and a 261-space parking lot on a 19-acre field at 4500 Powers Ave. NW. (The county has shown the proposed main building as having about 19,000 square feet, but that did not include a partial second floor of offices and meeting rooms.)
There was a huge amount of testimony, and I can’t give details, because I didn’t watch the whole thing.
Many of the neighbors oppose the proposed development as too large and out of character with the neighborhood, which consists mostly of single-family houses, fields and woodlands. Neighbors fear the impact on Powers Avenue and surrounding roads by hundreds of people attending Sunday services and other events during the week.
One new thing I learned was that the church, which now meets on Sundays at Oak Grove Elementary School, plans eventually to have two services on Sunday mornings with a possible attendance of up to 500 people each.
Church representatives including their lawyer told the board the application meets all requirements of the county development code and the development would not interfere with what neighboring owners can do on their properties.
Opponents said they had seen social media posts by the church that mentioned plans to hold big events at its future location. The church’s lawyer, Alan Sorem, said the decision should be made on what’s in the application, not on social media.
Earlier, the county staff had backed off requiring, as a condition of approval, that the church pay for widening all of Powers Avenue from Oak Grove Drive to Scenic Drive, a distance of 3,657 feet or 0.6 mile. The church opposed that requirement as out of proportion to its development near the east end of the road.
The church proposed road improvements only on its frontage and from there east to Scenic Drive.
The unspoken question for the county board: Does the development code protect the church’s right to develop the field it bought for $1.1 million in 2023? Or does the code protect the interests of neighbors who have paid the county taxes, in some cases for 60 years? (hh)
The proposed site of Northside Church in North Albany looked like this on June 23, 2026.
These poor people thought living this far away from Albany & Corvallis they’d be safe from major construction for 100 years…The farm land needs to remain safe…The church business is big money these days & they’ll get 10 lawyers to get their way….sad..
Having been a believer for 46 years, I have always been told by a number of my former pastors, it isn’t the house that serves the Lord, but the people. Over the years, I have worshipped in old churches that had a flair of the warmth of people loving to love one another, to fancy churches that became more like a corporation to have fancy worship services that took away the feel of coming to commune with God and listen to the word of God. It is a production each week. Can people afford a fancy church that will have more needs to be met to serve the people that attend? 10% of one’s income is the common foundation for tithing and for some, that is a stretch in their ability to attend with a clear conscience they are doing their best to serve the house of the Lord. We have a number of places in and around Albany that would be more cost effective in the long run and would serve the needs of believers and ones that are searching for a church home.
Do good, quit building edifices to yourselves.
The RR2 code protects residential uses on two acre parcels. A 28,000 sq ft building with paved parking for 200 cars, mas o menos, is not different from a commecial use that belongs in commercial zoned areas. That’s why it requiures this procedure of examining a proposal for a conditional use permit. If the Benton County commissioners allow this to happen, the commercial operations certainly will interfere with what neighbors can do on their properties. When there are 500 people singing, having outdoor BBQs and other noisy events, the neighbors will no longer be able to enjoy the rural quiet that they do now. The neighbors will no longer be able to walk their dogs or jog or bicycle along Powers Rd as 200 additional cars drive to and from all those activities. I hope the commissioners recognize that the proposed commercially intense use being proposed belongs elsewhere and deny the appeal.
100 percent agree. The roads with no margin … oak grove and powers … are a safety hazard with that much traffic and no improvements other than the property frontage. The area wasn’t built for the traffic from an entity that size. Several dead end roads enter onto those roads with no other entry and emergency vehicles will have an interesting time getting through in crunch times. When it becomes that you can’t walk in your neighborhood without landing in the ditch, it is a safety issue.
Every church I have attended in a fairly long life has been built in the middle of its community of worshipers so they can reach it easily. It’s hard to believe that there are 500 to 1,000 people in the NW Powers Road vicinity to attend services on Sundays. What is planned is clearly a commuters’ church. Not only is the building itself outrageously large for the area, but the amount of traffic on Scenic or on Oakville Road would be considerable.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that area dependent on wells and septic tanks? Has anyone done a survey to see what that size and type of installation would do to the water table?
It does not seem to be in anyone’s best interest to put this church so far away from the majority of its constituency.
The church would use its one residential city water hookup and store water for peak consumption, according to its application.
The septic system that has been approved by Benton County Environmental is for 5,175 gdp for this application. If they go to 500 attendees for 2 services plus the 60 people in Sunday youth services as they have stated, the result is 5,300 gdb. They have exceeded their septic capacity before they even put a shovel in the dirt.
Does that presume EVERYBODY that attends will use the rest room EVERY time? Extremely unlikely.
Would you rather the church or 50+ houses on those 19 acres? Development is going to happen sooner or later, regardless of your ideas of a quiet, rural life.
My understanding is that under the current zoning they could only develop the property for 10 houses. Those homes would all be paying property taxes and the likely number of cars added to daily traffic would be 20 (presuming 2 car households). I will again point out those households would be paying property taxes to help with road upkeep and the like. The church will not be paying any property taxes.
This shouldn’t be a hard call. Commissioners should deny based on lack of compatibility in this case. Just affirm planning commission decision.
OPPONENTS OF RECORD TO/CAN RESPOND ???
Written on file only or everyone that gave a verbal input ???
What about anyone who is not on file ?
Only can respond to applicants new material?
Did applicant need to show they have the resources to finish in a timely matter ?