The Steinbach city council chamber was full to overflowing Tuesday night as a large group of members from Calvary Chapel showed up to support the church's request for a variance regarding their new location at 305 Main Street. That is the former Steinbach Credit Union building. The city's Zoning Bylaw specifies that a church with 400 seats must have parking for 100 vehicles. Pastor Rob Balfour told city council there are not that many spaces available there during business hours and it only needs most of its parking on evenings and weekends. It asked that the city requirement be reduced to ten spaces which would satisfy its needs during business hours.

Mayor Chris Goertzen says council agreed.

"Council considered this and looked at it, really, as a mixed-use scenario where you have businesses open during the day and you have a church occupying evenings and weekends for their events. So, we thought it was an appropriate use and council did approve that with some provisos in regards to time of usage."

The main condition is that the lesser parking requirement applies only to hours when Steinbach Credit Union is open for business. SCU is the primary user of the available parking in that block of Main Street. On evenings and weekends, the church will be allowed to use 90 public parking stalls in the lot behind the building. It will pay the city $5,200 per year to help with the maintenance of those public parking spaces as well as snow clearing.

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Steinbach City Council Gives Green Light To Calvary Chapel