Could Belltown church be a homeless shelter?
For the second time in as many years, the former John Wesley United Methodist Church in Belltown may be transformed into something new. The first proposal was a brewpub. This time, a homeless shelter.
Faith United Methodist Church is seeking a special use exception to operate a homeless shelter at the historic church near Five Points in Lewes.
The Sussex County Board of Adjustment has scheduled a hearing on the request at 7 p.m., Monday, May 15, in County Council Chambers, 2 The Circle, Georgetown. The property is zoned AR-1.
Church officials could not be reached, but according to the application submitted to the board of adjustment, “Immanuel Shelter deisires to assist the expanding population of individuals experiencing homelessness in Sussex County.”
Opened in 2010, Immanuel Shelter is a Code Purple shelter, located just outside of Rehoboth on Oyster House Road. The shelter is currently located at the Faith United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, a one-room schoolhouse built by Pierre S. du Pont in the early 1920s.
This will be the second time the county’s board of adjustment has addressed a request by the shelter. In January 2016, the board denied its special-use exception request to operate a year-round homeless shelter on Hebron Road in West Rehoboth.
This is also the second proposal for reusing the Belltown church, located on a 2-acre parcel between Route 9 and Beaver Dam Road near Five Points. A couple months after the board denied the shelter, in March 2016, Sussex County Council approved a conditional-use application submitted by West Rehoboth’s Revelation Craft Brewing Co. to renovate the church into a 8,500-square-foot restaurant and brewery.
The church, built in 1946 with roots back to 1873, closed in 2007 and the congregation merged with two other churches into Faith United Methodist Church.
Late in 2016, Revelation stopped paying the nonrefundable down payments to maintain its interest in the property, because said brewery President Patrick Staggs, the company was worked its way through securing the other five parcels. The plan for the brewery only works with all six parcels because of parking requirements needed by county code, he said May 10.
Stagg said was aware of the application by the church and shelter. He said he understands why they’re going ahead with their plan. The shelter been shot down so many times, they’re thinking, “we might as well give it a shot,” he said. “I’d be doing the same thing if I was in his shoes.”
Stagg said he understands the need for the shelter and, he said, he’s spoken with Immanuel Shelter Janet Idema in the past about working together on a local project. His nonprofit, Homes for Hope retrofits metal shipping containers into homes for people in the Dominican Republic.
“There really is not bad relationship,” he said.
Staggs said he would not be at the hearing speaking in opposition of the church’s request. He said if the shelter’s plan is approved, he and his business partners will move on to plan B.
Delmarva Power expansion hearing
Also on the meeting agenda is a request by Delmarva Power for a variance from minimum buffer and landscape requirements associated with a $7 million expansion at their Midway Substation on Route 1 near Lewes.
Included in the project would be a second transformer, additional transmission and distribution breakers, and three separate transmission lines – one from Cool Spring to Five Points; one from Five Points to Midway; and another from Midway to Rehoboth Beach.
The Midway substation was installed in the early 1960s and was deactivated in the mid 1980s until 2005 when it was upgraded and put back into service.
