Dear Boone County Journal Editor 6/27/2011
What is the true reason for destroying the historic St James Catholic church in Belvidere? Sure, the Catholic community has grown in Belvidere and Boone County. St James Church is full to capacity on occasion. Parking and traffic patterns are difficult, especially for local residence. Let’s examine another local community and how they dealt with growth. Belvidere has roughly 26,400 residences, Freeport has roughly 25,000. Freeport now has three Catholic churches: St Joseph, St Mary, and St Thomas Aquinas. The St Joseph church just celebrated 150 years and is a similar design to Belvidere’s St James church. To accommodate growth Freeport built the more modern St Thomas Aquinas church rather than tear down their history.
St James received a donation of 22 acres to build a new church on the intersection of Squaw Prairie and Town Hall. This generous offer yielded a perfect opportunity to build a 2nd Catholic Church in Boone County, preserve the historic existing church and the surrounding community, and provide for future growth flexibility. Yet the current plan is to sell the 22 acre property, tear down the125 year existing church for a parking lot, and build a massive 70 ft tall structure on a lot adjacent to the school that is just too small to accommodate it. The new structure will be 30 feet from the school on one side, and just 4 inches from the sidewalk on the other. The height, setbacks, and parking are significant variance issues that the Zoning and Planning Commission have already given an approval recommendation. The Belvidere City Council has scheduled a meeting on July 5th for a potential final vote and the meeting is open to the public. If approved, and the massive structure is built on the proposed lot, traffic patterns and parking will be a nightmare due to a reduced mass schedule and seating capacity expanded from the existing 350 to 850. What’s wrong with this picture?
Why did Father Geary and a small group of appointees choose this path rather than build on the 22 acres donated for the express purpose of building a new Catholic church? Some say the infrastructure costs (sewer and water) were too expensive. Others have said that building on the 22 acre site will draw parishioners and their money away from Rockford’s Holy Family Catholic church, whose boundary ends right at the Boone county line. When the Historic church is gone, and the massive new church is operational, most will look back and regret the decisions a few made for the majority. There is a growing concern that politics and a false sense of urgency have overridden good judgment.
This is a call to action. If you are troubled by St James’ current direction and would like to preserve Belvidere’s historic St James Church and prevent the impact to the surrounding neighborhood please:
- Call and write your alderman to voice your opinion before the July 5th meeting, www.ci.belvidere.il.us
- Contact Father Geary or Bishop Doran and request an explanation
- Contact “Concerned citizens to save St James Church” and get involved
- Robert Casey (racskc007@aol.com) 815-540-8655
- Michael Mattus (magneticmike1@yahoo.com) 815-985-5560
- Dan & Jean Christenson (Jeanchristenson@Live.com) 815-543-4179
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