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. To the Planning Commission of St. Anthony Village Dear Ladies and Gentlemen; We, of the- building committee, of Elmwood Lutheran Church, wish to express our thanks for this hearing extension. It has given us the opportunity to do some additional homework, and also provided us the chance to meet some of the neighbors. As you may know, the officers of a church usually change every 1 to 3 years so we do not always have the continuity that is important at these times. The committee held a meeting with the six neighbors on the south--on Thursday, August 4th. We- were able to express our views and concerns and to also listen to theirs. There is actually only two families that would be affected by our proposal, the Antczak family and the Esau family. The attached sketch show the approximate location of their homes in relation to the proposed addition. The Antczak property is already 75% aligned with the present church building and would therefore lose about 19 feet of northerly viewing. The Esau property presently has about 1/2 of their view blocked by three large trees. The church addition would restrict their view directly to the north over the church's back yard. Their 2 large evergreens block most of the view to the Northeastf the park. As was stated in the first hearing, the church chose this plan of ex- pansion for numerous reasons. We also considered alternate plans then and just recently after our neighborhood meeting. Our main concerns • for this expansion are as follows; we need about 10 more classrooms; We -need to expand the sanctuary to seat another 100 people; we need to enlarge the kitchen to better serve our needs; we need to provide more restrooms; we need to expand the narthex to avoid the crowding that we presently hav_e; _ even though we are growing, we have limited funds. I have outlined some of the alternate plans here; A - Expand the sanctuary 15 feet to the west and add a classroom wing off of the present educational wing. 1 - Advantage - no need for a variance. 2 - Disadvantage - Costly to move the existing7_-liri_c1-- vall and stained glass window; the added classrooms would block the existing windows and restrict future expansion to the north; this would allow no provision for enlarging the na?hex, the kitchen or the restrooms. B - Expand the sanctuary by removing the block wall and exposing the beams which would, in effect, widen the room rather than lengthen it. 1 - Advantage - no variance required. 2— Disadvantage - the view of the altar area would be restricted; the narthex area would be reduced rather than expanded; and. again, . there is no room to add restrooms or enlarge the kitchen. C - Build a balcony at the rear of the sanctuary. 1 - Advantage - additional seating within the present room, no variance required. _ .2 - Disadvantage - insufficient height except at the center and would require two stairways thereby greatly reducing the seating.