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St. Paul AME planning major project — and a move

Posted on March 27, 2008March 27, 2008 by Staff

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The Rogers Road neighborhood could see major changes over the next several years, with the possible addition of a church, affordable housing, recreation areas and an elementary school.

St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church has purchased more than 20 acres of land on the corner of Rogers and Purefoy roads and is planning to build not only new worship facilities but housing, athletic facilities and a wellness center.

In addition, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools officials are considering building the district’s 11th elementary school on part of the Green Tract, a 169-acre parcel of land in the Rogers Road neighborhood near the Orange County Landfill. The Green Tract is jointly owned by Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

According to Rose Bynum, chair of the St. Paul AME capital fund committee, the church doesn’t have enough space at its location on the corner of Merritt Mill Road and Main Street, where it has been for 144 years.

“We needed more space for the congregational growth,” Bynum said. “We also have a vision plan of extended ministry – not just coming to church on Sunday.”

Bynum said the church’s plans include facilities for spiritual health, education and physical health. The new campus would be built in four phases over a five-year period. Ideally, the church would break ground at the new campus in 2009, she added.

The new campus’s facilities – recreational facilities for youth and seniors, affordable housing and athletic fields – would be available to the community, not just the church and its members.

Bynum said the church has about 200 members and has grown steadily over the past several years, intensifying the need for more space.

“It was a very difficult decision for the congregation to ever look beyond that corner,” Bynum said. “There’s a lot of history at that site.”

Bynum said the church has raised 25 to 30 percent of the $3 million to $4 million needed for the plan’s first phase, which includes the sanctuary, church offices, fellowship hall and daycare facilities. She hopes the church will collect the remaining funds needed through a pledge campaign, church-sponsored activities and fundraisers, community outreach and grant programs.

The Rogers Road Small Area Plan Task Force voted to support the church’s plan at the group’s March 13 meeting, and the church submitted its plan to the Town of Chapel Hill last week.

Rev. Robert Campbell, a longtime resident of the Rogers Road neighborhood and a member of the task force, said he supported the St. Paul AME plan, adding that he thought the campus would enhance the neighborhood.

In addition, Campbell said he thought the church facilities would help bring youth and senior citizens together.

“I’ve noticed that there is a separation between young folks and elderly folks,” he said. “Young folks need somebody with wisdom to direct them.… I think [the church facilities] will generate that.”

A school on the Green Tract?

Also at the task force’s March 13 meeting, school board members presented the plan to possibly build an elementary school on the Green Tract. According to district projections, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will need a new elementary school to open in the fall of 2010. The district’s 10th elementary school, Morris Grove Elementary, is scheduled to open on the corner of Eubanks and Dromoland roads this fall.

Lisa Stuckey, vice chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education, said the district’s long-range facilities planning task force is considering several sites for the 11th elementary school, and has not yet made a formal recommendation to the school board. She added that while the district needs a new elementary school to open in the fall of 2010, that may not happen.

“It would be quite a challenge to open it then,” she said. “We’re just running out of time.”

Alderman Joal Hall Broun, a member of the task force, said she would like to see an elementary school in the Rogers Road neighborhood.

“I think schools in residential neighborhoods stabilize the neighborhoods, socially, economically, culturally,” Broun said. “In the southern part of Orange County, there are no longer any schools in predominantly black neighborhoods.”

Broun added that the Green Tract land is already owned by the cities and county.

“Why should we have a school board, which is another county portion of government, go out to the private sector and spend money
… when we should be able to work out some sort of agreement,” she said.

Campbell also said he would support the district building an elementary school on the Green Tract.

“[The school] will help bring infrastructure to an area that needs it,” Campbell said. “If you look around Chapel Hill, there really isn’t a school that is in a neighborhood that is predominantly black.… If you bring a school into the neighborhood, you bring the possibility of security, law enforcement, fire [protection].”

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