Susan Moffat - Austin, TX

I live with my family in the Hyde Park neighborhood, a national historic
district located in Austin, Texas. Our neighborhood is home to many
churches and they are a valued part of our community.

About 25 years ago, Hyde Park Baptist Church (HPBC) began a growth campaign
to transform itself from a small neighborhood congregation into a regional
commuter church. Other religious institutions with similar ambitions have
quite sensibly relocated to the outskirts of town on large tracts served by
major highways.

Though it has an annual operating budget of $6.9 million and could well
afford such a move, HPBC has insisted on staying on this small residential
neighborhood, squeezing massive big-box development onto narrow streets of
family bungalows. City zoning would not normally permit such overscale
development in a residential area, but HPBC has used combination of
litigation and the services of a high-priced land development lobbyist to
circumvent the same building standards that apply to every other area
property owner.

Over the years, HPBC has acquired and demolished 38 neighborhood homes. Its
main sanctuary block now contains over 274,000 square feet of building
space, including a private school and day care center with a combined
enrollment of roughly 1200 students and attendant traffic.

In the late 1970s, over neighborhood protests, the church built a 5-story,
500-car parking garage, facing the main sanctuary block. Though this
garage is consistently underused and average Sunday attendance has not
increased from 1985 levels, HPBC's leadership now wants to build a SECOND
5-story parking garage on a small neighborhood street facing single-family
homes. It is currently suing the city in state district court for the right
to do so.

As proposed, this new garage would rise to a height of five stories
directly from the sidewalk, without any setbacks or landscaping to soften
its impact. It would empty 485 cars onto a narrow residential street
directly adjacent to single family homes, literally wrapping around two
sides of one home where the owner has lived for over 30 years. If used to
capacity, it would take more than an hour and a half to empty (based on an
optimistic 10 seconds per vehicle), doubling the exhaust fumes and noise
associated with the current garage.

Neighbors have actually agreed to a smaller parking garage on this site
(five stories with a 15,600 SF footprint, as large as many commercial
garages). Yet the church has refused to budge.

At this writing, the state district court has ruled narrowly that the
neighbors did not have the right to appeal the parking garage building
permit to the City Council. The city has filed a motion for a new trial and
is awaiting the court's response. Both the neighbors and the city are
continuing attempts to engage church leadership in negotiation, but have
met with silence so far.

As neighbors, we are saddened and exhausted on every possible level. We
have never asked this church to stop growing, only to grow compatibly with
those of us who make our homes here. Despite fundraising attempts, we
cannot afford the ongoing costs of legal representation to defend ourselves
in a battle that has now spanned decades. At least one couple near the
proposed garage site has already sold their home. Depending on the outcome,
others may follow.

We do not believe that the constitutional separation of church and state
was intended to completely negate the rights of others. Yet this single
institution has used the argument of "religious freedom" to claim excessive
land development privileges unavailable to any other area property owners.
Its quest for growth has jeopardized the peace, health and safety of its
nearest neighbors. We feel beaten up - and there is no end in sight.

Susan Moffat
barbaro@bga.com