Ames Zoning Board approves Lutheran Church of Hope special-use permit, permits internally lit 70-foot cross

The Ames City Zoning Board of Adjustment voted to approve a special-use permit allowing Lutheran Church of Hope to build a roughly 27,000-square-foot, two-story church at 5119 Lincoln Way, including site improvements, parking and a 70-foot cross that the board permitted to be internally lit.

City planner Benjamin Campbell told the board the property had been annexed and rezoned to a floating suburban residential low-density (FSRL) district and that the master plan for the rezoning allowed a church on the site with a special-use permit. Campbell said the proposed building would include a ground-floor auditorium and basement classrooms, a detention basin, and a parking lot that substantially exceeds the code minimum: the plan lists 728 seats (requiring 182 spaces under the applicable standard of one space per four seats) and proposes 386 spaces in the first phase.

The permit approval includes conditions recommended by staff and additional requirements the board recorded on the motion. Those conditions require the existing house on the site to be vacated by the end of 2026 and demolished thereafter, recording a plat to combine the two existing parcels, construction of proposed Lincoln Way frontage improvements, and recordation of easements for a Durant cul-de-sac turnaround and utilities. Staff also recommended deferring landscaping and buffering for…