Faithland Team Discusses Options

As you have probably heard, our team is offering small group sessions for members of our congregation to hear more about what the Memorandum of Understanding with Habitat for Humanity, Seattle/King and Kittitas County (Habitat SKKC) is and what it would mean if we agree to sign it. This week, in this column, we hope to explain how we got to the MOU that you will hear about in the small group meetings and provide information for those who can’t attend a small group gathering.
 
As you may remember, or as you may have read in last week’s newsletter, our congregation has voted three times about our property discernment in the last three years, each one enabling a process to move forward to seek out a potential development partner and reduce the overall amount of property that our church leaders need to manage. With each vote and the steps following them, we’ve had oversight from our district superintendents and the District Board of Church and Location, as well as guidance from our partners at the Church Council of Greater Seattle and the consulting firm, LPA. With overwhelming support from the congregation in each vote, the Leadership Board identified the criteria by which we would be able to evaluate potential development partners for the west half of the church parcel. Last fall, we released a Request for Information and Qualifications (RFI/Q) to potential partners who could respond with their ability to meet the criteria. Habitat SKKC’s response to the RFI/Q shared detailed proposals about every criterion.
 
Since receiving their response, our team with input from the Leadership Board, has shared what we know and heard some questions from many of you. One of the questions that was new at this stage that came up multiple times was about how a sale of land to Habitat SKKC would affect the church’s operating budget. Currently, our income is less than our expenses and we are hoping to plan for a future where income and expenses are more closely aligned. Therefore, any proceeds from a sale of property would be invested so the interest from that investment could be used for mission and operation of the church. Upon hearing your question, we wondered if there was any way to increase the sale price of the land parcel and our contacts at Habitat SKKC suggested that not having to build a new parsonage would be a way to increase the money the church would be able to invest from this project. Therefore, we have begun reconsidering whether the south half of the lot would make any more sense than the west half.
 
Below, you will find a brief summary of the two possible areas that the MOU could cover, as well as two other potential scenarios, that we have heard proposed, labeled Scenarios 1-4, with our summary of pros and cons for each. The first two scenarios both welcome Camp United We Stand (CUWS) and include the development of 30-35 townhomes for new neighbors in the 60-80% AMI range.
 

 
As you can see, each scenario involves trade-offs and we are in the process of discerning what is most important to our congregation so we can vote o the best option on March 29. We look forward to sharing more details at the small group sessions when we can hear from you. We welcome your questions.