By:Carrie James
Parishioners and officials of St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church, 600 Newbridge Rd., East Meadow, hope that what is now a vacant lot will soon house a new church sanctuary.
Planning for the church, which started three years ago at St. Raphael's, has reached final stages. The Town of Hempstead is now reviewing the plans, said John Vosilla, one of more than 150 church members involved in the new church construction. St. Raphael's officials hope to soon receive building permits so that groundbreaking can take place this summer.
In 1998, parish members and Rev. Thomas Haggerty, decided it was time to expand the church to accommodate the parish's 5,500 members, said Robert Farell, a parish council member.
"We have upwards of 5,500 families, and our parish only seats about 625 people," Farell said. "We found that we actually had to run extra Masses in the school [St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Regional School]. But over the years, our number of priests has declined, and we couldn't offer the extra Masses anymore. According to the Diocese of Rockville Centre, we found that in reality a parish of this size should have a 900- to 1,000-seat church."
In the beginning, St. Raphael's considered expanding the present church, located just a few feet from Newbridge Road and Pendroy Street. But logistics of expansion just wouldn't work, Farell said, mainly because each wall holds up the roof and removing a wall to expand would mean removing the roof as well.
"It wouldn't have been practical to renovate, and it wouldn't have been cost-efficient," he said. "The next thought was to knock down the old church and build a new one in its place."
That also proved not to be an option, however, Farell said, because having a church of that size so close to Newbridge Road, which sees more than 20,000 cars a day, would not provide the spiritual setting St. Raphael's is seeking.
Finally, church officials decided to develop the back lot, roughly 5.5 acres of open space that is used for special events such as Easter egg hunts and by the school as a play area, Vosilla said.
As plans sit, the architect sited the new 14,000-square-foot sanctuary in the center of the land. It is to be surrounded by green, open space and parking lots.
"Church officials said let's try to design a setting so it becomes a spiritual area and reflects the church and also is pleasing to the neighborhood," Farell said about plans, which include many trees, an outdoor amphitheater and a 15-foot buffer zone to separate the church from the neighborhood.
In all, the new church and surrounding land development will cost roughly $4.2 million, with already 3/4 of the money raised through parishioners' donations.
"It indicates the desire of all of our families to move into a new church," said parish council member Victor Costa regarding parishioners' willingness to donate roughly $3.5 million.
Perhaps part of the reason, Vosilla said, is that the new church will reflect parishioners' desires.
In preliminary plans, Haggerty questioned the planning committee on what parishioners would want in a new church that does not now exist. So, members went to visit other churches in the area, as well as question parish organizations on what they would like to see.
"Father Tom said, 'This church is going to be for the parish, so let's find out what they want in it,'" Vosilla said. "We took the requests to the architect and said, 'The people in the parish would like these things, what can you do?.' We came up with a design that really reflected the desires of our parish."
The new church and outdoor amphitheater will be handicapped accessible. The church will also feature air conditioning and more gathering space, which parishioners had requested.
The planning committee also worked hard with neighboring residents, especially those along Oakdale Road who would be affected by increased traffic. Church officials said they wanted to be good neighbors and worked with residents to modify plans as much as possible to accommodate concerns.
The plans now include a second church entrance, which would start on Newbridge Road and lead back to the parking lot. They also moved several spots away from the side of the property adjacent to the neighboring houses. In all, Farell said they made several adjustments to plans, raising costs by at least $125,000.
"I think we had a pretty good relationship with the neighbors," Vosilla said. "We wanted to address any of the issues they had, and I think they would agree that we tried really hard to accommodate their concerns."
The neighbors, who are also parishioners at St. Raphael's, said that after three meetings with church officials, they believe their concerns were mostly addressed.
"Our main concern and all the neighbors' concerns is simply reflected in all the kids in the driveway," said Donna Morales, parishioner and church neighbor. "We were concerned about all the traffic and cars that would be going into that back lot. We feel they did make concessions, and they tried to work with us, which is great."
Now that the church received approval from all sides - parishioners, the diocese and neighbors - Vosilla said St. Raphael's ready to move ahead with plans, pending the town's OK.
Once the new sanctuary opens, church officials said the current building would be turned into a parish hall for community events and a meeting facility.
"We're very proud of this whole development," Farell said. "We're just very excited because we think it's going to be a tremendous success. There's a lot of enthusiasm from the parishioners."
