The $6.8 million project will relocate the parish to Springboro after more than 100 years in Franklin. The new facility will almost quadruple the capacity for worship services and include a parish center, all in one building on the 17-acre site.
On the west side of Settlers Walk, Southwest Church is just beginning expansion of its church on five acres off Remick Road.
The $800,000 project will provide more room for the congregation, established in 1997 in a banquet center on Sharts Road in Springboro. Southwest began meeting at the Coffman YMCA in 2000. The congregation moved next door to the current building in 2012.
“Phase II will enable us to continue to reach more and more families with the good news of Jesus,” Roger Hendricks, pastor of Southwest Church, said in materials outlining the plan and explaining how members can make contributions to make it reality.
Development of Settlers Walk slowed during the economic downturn, thwarting plans by the city and developer Rob Coffman to complete the entire development more quickly.
Other developers are now completing the project.
Renewed residential growth in the area also forced the city to redistrict council wards to reflect the population shift.
Commercial growth has spilled back across Ohio 741, where townhomes by developer Charles Simms and a Kettering Health Network office building are going up in the Village Park area.
A microbrewery, the Crooked Handle Brewing Co., recently opened in the Marketplace at Settler's Walk retail center, which anchored by a Dorothy Lane Market.
Fischer Homes is building out the final section of a 500-unit residential development, south of the St. Mary’s church and parish center, on the east side of what was to be Settlers Walk. The area is no longer considered part of Settlers Walk, although it is connected by a road.
“It continues to be a very fast growing area,” said David Vomacka, a former city councilman who lives in Settlers Walk.
Last week, representatives of Southwest Church unveiled their latest expansion plan to the city’s planning commission. Other than a request for a sidewalk tying the church to the walking path along Remick, the commission seems ready to approve the 7,720-square-foot expansion at a Feb. 24 meeting.
Meanwhile, Dryden Builders continued to work on the new St. Mary’s Catholic Church and parish center. Construction is to be complete in June, but the building is to dedicated Aug. 14 during a Mass with Archbishop Dennis Schnurr. The former church in Franklin is to be sold to help pay off the new one.
St. Mary's opening will culminate more than five years of work, based on demographics indicating that more than half of the parish already lives in Springboro or Clearcreek Twp., the unincorporated area outside city limits.
More growth is anticipated in communities on both sides of the Montgomery-Warren County line, particularly east of the Austin Boulevard interchange at Interstate 75.
“That was the fastest growing area of our parish,” said Steve Bermick, parish administrator at St. Mary’s. “Austin Landing — that’s had a big influence on things over there.”
The parish of more than 1,100 families expects to draw new members with the larger sanctuary and parking lot located closer to the growth area, Bermick said.
“They didn’t come to our church because there wasn’t room for them,” he said.
Before moving into the development, Dorothy Lane Market wanted to make sure enough customers would be in the market area, according to Vomacka.
“A church operates much the same,” said Vomacka, who oversaw the original development plans of both churches as a member of the city’s planning commission. “Any church or business would move to where their customer base is.”
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