Does this look like a concert venue to you?

This is part of a larger series. See the full series on the Calvary Chapel conversation here.

Coffee chats, summer concerts, and more?

It’s a picnic area. It’s a coffee chat corner. It’s a… concert venue??! That’s a big question holding up an 11,500-square-foot addition at Calvary Chapel, home to a church congregation and Innovate Academy.

Many months ago, Calvary Chapel applied to the township to proceed with the next phase of its campus expansion. The permitting and approval process can often feel like a slog, but this process has been especially sloggish. As Lacey Meier, township manager, said at the June 11 Board of Supervisors meeting, a decision on the application has been put off due to “concerns about lighting, noise, the berms, and transparency.”

Lighting, noise, and berms might be challenging tactical problems to solve, but transparency seems like it ought to be a slam dunk. One would think acting in good faith would be a walk in the park for a faith organization. But some confusion about a concert venue has proven that a walk in the park is more like a hike up Mount Misery, leaving everyone a little out of breath.

In fairness to those involved, it appears that some decisions regarding this campus expansion were made by previous leaders on both sides of the table who are no longer with their respective organizations. It’s now up to current officials to unwind the mess. But also… if it looks and quacks like a concert venue…

In the spirit of transparency, I thought you might be interested in the development saga that’s captured many hours of Chadds Ford Planning Commission meetings over the last few months. Let me recap for you (but make it a little bit fun) with a paraphrased version of the conversation on June 9 between Planning Commission members and representatives of Calvary Chapel regarding the architecture plans presented to the township for application review.

These words (and emojis😉) are all mine unless denoted in quotation marks and are only intended to convey the spirit of the conversation. If you were lucky enough to attend the meeting live (or on Zoom, as I did), you enjoyed all 2+ hours of Q&A.

— action —

Planning Commission (PC): So, how do you plan to use this new outdoor space?

Calvary Chapel (CC): The terrace will be for having coffee. Small group chats. It’s right next to the coffee shop, so ya know… Lots of coffee convos. ☕

PC: Like.. just coffee? Anything else? 🧐

CC: Pretty much coffee.

PC: Sizzlin’ Summer concerts? 🤨

CC: Oh yeah. Those too. 😬

PC: 🥴 (clearly unimpressed that the loud summer concerts didn’t come to mind sooner…) Anything else? Could you provide a more specific list of activities you anticipate using it for?

CC: I guess?

PC: 🙄

CC: ….

PC: Do you plan to have permanent audiovisual equipment stored or installed on this structure, which you refer to as a terrace?

CC: Well. Yeah? I mean. It’s tough for our music guy to lug everything out to the stage each time we want to use it, so… that’d be nice?

PC: Hmmm… Looks like a duck/amphitheatre, swims like a duck/amphitheatre, quacks like a duck/amphitheatre…

CC: … 😬

PC: So in your application, you describe this outdoor space as one used for quiet and private meet-ups and intimate gatherings. But we hopped on your public website and noticed your capital campaign fundraising page looks a wee bit different.

PC: 🧐 I’m not sure about you, but this rendering really evokes the outdoor concert venue vibe. I was an architect by profession before I sat behind this podium, and I feel that a client wouldn’t be happy with this very expensive terrace, featuring unusually high ceilings and separate, permanent audio and video equipment closets adjacent to the space, if they’d asked for a nice outdoor coffee chat space. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. But I feel like they might have felt I’d overdone it. And at $4 mil, that’s an awful lot of money to spend to host just 6-8 outdoor Sizzlin’ Summer events. Are you sure this is just for seating during coffee chats and family gatherings?

CC: Oh. Those renderings were for fundraising.

PC: 😳😱😵‍💫

CC: ….

PC: That seems weird that you’d tell the township one thing (for months and even after being pressed about it) and tell the donors something that feels like… pretty different. Some might call that a “bait and switch”?

Public: 🤔🥴🤨

CC: ….

PC: If the planned structure is more like an amphitheater, which, by the way, is what you call it on your fundraising website, and less like a coffee shop, which appears nowhere on your fundraising website, we have a couple of problems.

First, your current building is in a zone that prohibits outdoor concerts. So, we’re kind of already in a bind.

Next, the township and Calvary signed a contract in 2015 that specifically prohibited outdoor concerts, except from May to August, for the Sizzlin’ Summer events, and expressly prohibited permanent installation of audiovisual equipment for such concerts. I’m just curious if spending $4 million on this structure (whatever we decide to call it) is worth the investment, considering you can only use it a few nights a year.

And we can’t really make big exceptions to those restrictions because your facility has already impeded on some of the neighbors to the north of your parking lot fairly egregiously. This isn’t going so well already.

CC: …

PC: For the record, we have had really productive and good-faith conversations with Calvary in the last few weeks about this issue.

Public: (silently looking at each other, thinking… Except the part about evading the concert venue intentions until the committee put them up on the big screen. That seems sort of… not in great faith?)

CC: …

PC: Seems like we have a lot of open items on this one. Calvary Chapel, please come back to us with more details in the future. It’s late and we all need to get to bed. Let’s move the remaining agenda items to next month. Meeting adjourned.

— and scene —

So what’s the point?

Maybe you’re a neighbor who loves or hates the idea of a concert venue at Calvary Chapel. This might be important to you.

The next Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday, July 2, at 7:00 p.m. at the Township building (10 Ring Road), if you’re interested in attending to learn more about this development project.

Maybe you’re a donor excited about an amphitheatre at Calvary Chapel. You might be interested to know that an amphitheatre is, in fact, not permitted in this zoning area under current circumstances, and the sales message on the fundraising page is not exactly the compliance message being communicated to the counterparty.

Maybe you’re a constituent who appreciates a planning commission committed to its purpose to ask tough questions, work through nuances, and dig up facts even when applicants are less forthcoming than one might hope. Let your appointed representatives know you appreciate their efforts.

Maybe you simply enjoy a good story recap.

Or perhaps you’re just a regular resident who appreciates transparency and wants to see the truth prevail. God knows the truth could really use a few W’s these days. 🙄

P.S. Wouldn’t it be nice if Chadds Ford posted the recordings of township and committee meetings they already record so you could fact-check my recap? It’s a pretty common practice in other municipalities. That would be yet another much-needed W for transparency and accountability in government and a boost for local democracy. 🤞