After purchasing their new property 16 years ago, Aldergrove’s Rose of Sharon Baptist Church is finally moving to a new home.
Township council unanimously passed an application to rezone a 4.4 acre site at Fraser Highway and 248 Street from a rural zone to an institutional zone to build a new church and school for Rose of Sharon.
The church, which is currently located on 248 Street just north of 40 Avenue, has been serving the Aldergrove community since 1994, and their adjacent school Aldergrove Christian Academy since 1995. Their sister location in Richmond operated from 1963-1995.
Rose of Sharon originally purchased their new property at 24746 Fraser Hwy. in 1996 as a larger site to move to in the future.
Some Township councillors expressed concerns with traffic congestion that may heighten with use of that property.
Councillor Charlie Fox said the traffic backlog that occurs at the intersection of 248 Street and Fraser Highway is already an issue, and careful planning of entrances and exits to the new church must be made.
“I’m very concerned about traffic control. We all know that the corner of 248 Street and Fraser Highway has a significant bottleneck many, many times during any given day. And this will now likely continue to make this problem worse, even on Sunday,” he said.
Councillor Grant Ward disagreed, saying the plan already in place works well and that a right turn in and a right turn out on Fraser Highway will be fine.
“I don’t think we should muddle along at this stage I think we should just get on with it,” he said. “We will meet the challenge if and when it comes along.”