Ground-breaking - August 15, 2010
The church family of CFCN is excited to take the next step, ground-breaking, on our new ministry center. While our membership still needs to vote to approve the required funding, needed to build our ministry center, the development of the site is set to begin on August 16th. With funding already in place to develop the site for the building pad, we hope to have all approvals in place to begin the foundation by late September or early October.
"The Road to Keswick"
In 2002 the leadership of Charlottesville First began to discuss the need for a new church facility. The existing facility located in the Belmont community of Charlottesville would not adequately handle the growth and expansion of the church. With less than one acre of property, expansion at the Belmont site was limited. From 2000 to 2002 the church had grown by an estimated 50%. Space and parking limitations were beginning to affect the ministry of the church.
A committee was established to begin exploring relocation. One of the most important items on the agenda of this committee was the need to find property. The committee began to explore all possibilities. In the fall of 2002, we met with the owners of the Edgehill Farm property located in Keswick. The property, situated between I-64 and Rt. 22/Rt. 250, was a perfect location. The initial inquiry of the Keswick property went un-heeded for 1 ½ years.
In the spring of 2004 the church board decided to take a proactive step to solve our space issues. With the property search stalled, both with the Keswick property and all other possibilities, the church board voted to sell our existing facility and move into the Covenant School, located in the 5th Street area of Albemarle County. The facilities of the school would solve all of our space and parking issues. With a 95% vote of the membership, our church moved from our facility of 50 years, to the new facilities of the Covenant School, where we still worship today.
The decision to move was indeed a step of faith. We did not have a buyer for our church facility in Belmont and did not know how long it would take to sell. However, God was at work. After our open-house service at the school in the summer of 2004, several buyers showed some interest. Subsequently, we entered into a contract within one month and the sale was completed in November of that same year. At the same time we enlisted the services of a realtor in an effort to locate property for our new facilities. We decided to once again approach the owners of the Edgehill Farm/Keswick Property. They expressed interest in selling the property and we began to negotiate a contract. This went on for over a year. In the fall of 2005 our negotiations broke off.
Once again our leaders went back to the drawing board. Much of 2006 was spent looking for a suitable tract of land and/or building/property for our church. In the fall of 2006 we considered a building in the Keswick area. The building was vacant. After looking at this facility we decided it would not work for our church facility. Once again the Edgehill Farm property stared us in the face. And yes, once again we approached the owners. In February of 2007 we entered into a contract to purchase an estimated 7 acres of the Edgehill Farm property; 7 acres located on Rt. 22. Since that time we have been working with our architects, engineers, the county and VDOT to determine if we can build our church facility on the property.
In October of 2007 the Albemarle County Planning Commission recommended that the Board of Supervisors grant a special use permit for the construction of our church facility on the Edgehill Farm/Keswick property. On December 12, 2007, the Board of Supervisors approved their recommendation, paving the way for our church to move forward with the purchase and development of our new church home.
