Opposition Continues Against Orchard Church’s Parking Lot

An Arlington Heights church has not yet finalized its plans to build a parking lot, but the idea continues to raise opposition from neighbors.

Orchard Evangelical Free Church, 1330 N. Douglas Ave., is hoping to have its engineering plans for the $1 million parking lot within the next few weeks, said Claire Bechard, director of communications and congregation life.

Neighbors, however, have been speaking out against the idea at numerous village board meetings over the last few months. Neighbor Cynthia Jones said the church has already marked a number trees that will be cut down, and told families who rent the homes the church owns need to move out by June 1.

“Why is (the church) so confident the village will approve it?” Jones said.

Orchard’s ultimate plan is to build a convention center to be used by more people, she said, calling that idea “unthinkable.”

While the plans are not finalized, Orchard is not trying to expand the current building, nor create a convention center, said Bechard.

The church opened two locations, one in South Barrington and another in Itasca, which has affected attendance at the Arlington Heights campus. Orchard is not growing nor declining, Bechard said, but it still needs to alleviate parking for the 200 cars that line the streets on Sundays.

Orchard has been waiting for its plans to be finalized internally, Bechard said, and the church is just getting those plans back now.

Church officials are expecting to meet with the village staff within the next few weeks to start the process of reviewing and submitting its plans, she said.

According to the church's website, the project in expected to be complete by September.

Bechard said she has not personally spoken with any neighbors, so she was unable to speak to what neighbors are concerned about, but said other church officials met with 13 neighbors in February.

“We recognize changes tend to stir people up,” she said. “There are a lot of unknowns. We hope to continue to keep everyone informed. We anticipated the neighbors would be involved in the village meetings when we are ready to present our plan."