Board of Adjustment approves special-use permit for Grace Community Church expansion on Camino Carlos Rey

The Santa Fe Board of Adjustment approved a special-use permit for Grace Community Church’s proposed 5,800-square-foot addition at 22247 Camino Carlos Rey during its meeting. The board voted unanimously to grant the permit with staff-recommended conditions and added a requirement that exterior lighting be shielded to prevent nuisance glare into neighboring properties.

The permit allows the church to construct a single-story, 24-foot-high community building adjacent to the existing 5,500-square-foot church. City case planner Claudia Kath told the board the new building is intended for weddings, meetings, memorial services, baby showers and weekday church uses such as bible study, and that the applicant proposes building hours “primarily about 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.” The application requires compliance with Municipal Code 10-2.5 (noise) and other zoning rules in Chapter 14.

The board’s approval follows a staff presentation and responses from the applicant’s representative. The site plan submitted by the applicant, represented as the agent Plan A Architecture, shows a courtyard between the proposed structure and the existing church, a playground relocated within that courtyard, and a covered connection (breezeway)…