New church to open an arcade as city shuffles zoning on Gulf Starr Drive

On the Emerald Coast, there’s always a need for another church, Pastor William Colvin of Journey Fellowship Ministries says.

“We live in an extremely diverse environment,” Colvin, whose Destin-area congregation has been meeting for nearly three months, told The Log. “There are many differences between churchgoers. Their likes and dislikes vary, so a church is not going to be able to reach everybody. I want to come in and focus on doing things a little differently.”

Colvin, a Destin resident for four and a half years, said he wants to reach out to at least some of the 43 to 47 percent of “greater Destin area” families identified by a Florida Baptist Convention demographic study as having “no faith involvement.”

“How we are going to do it, I am not 100 percent sure, yet,” Colvin said. “We’re still learning who we are and what we want to do.”

Colvin knows where he’d like to do it, at a building on Gulf Starr Drive where the owners let the congregation gather for a small fee. After learning that the General Commercial zoning there didn’t allow for houses of worship, the gathering stopped.

At the Nov. 16 City Council meeting, Colvin said he didn’t want to go against the rules, but asked if the rules for General Commercial could be changed to allow religious groups there. Community Development Director Ken Gallander said that most houses of worship in Destin are in Institutional zoning, though some might be grandfathered in elsewhere.

“In our old zoning, before we adopted that, churches could be anywhere?” Councilor Dewey Destin asked. “I would say we need to move back to our old, liberal policy … I’ve never looked at churches as a bad neighbor.”

The council voted unanimously to revise the city’s growth plan and Land Use Code to allow churches in General Commercial, though Councilor Sam Seevers said  staff should make sure that the buffer zones required between churches and businesses serving alcohol wouldn’t hurt the businesses already operating in that area.

“We have a major bunch of restaurants there,” Councilor Jim Bagby said. “I wouldn’t want to see them put out of business.”

Gallander said the buffer zone wouldn’t apply unless more than 51 percent of the sales were alcohol.

City Manager Greg Kisela pointed out that the city won’t submit its next growth-plan amendments until 2010, so the change won’t happen immediately. Unfortunately, Colvin told The Log, the church will be without a home in about two weeks.

“We’re meeting at our house right now,” he said, but when his family moves into an apartment at the start of December, there won’t be room. “Just in time for Christmas, we’re not going to be able to meet ... We’ll exercise flexibility, rolling with the punches as they say.”

For now, Journey Fellowship is working to open an amusement arcade at the Gulf Star Drive property “as a place for families to have a safe and fun environment together,” Colvin wrote to the city. He said there’d be no arcade games, but the arcade would offer televisions, videogames, movies, and a pool table.

Kisela told the council that this would be compatible with General Commercial zoning, and the church already has its business license for the arcade.

Looking ahead, Colvin told The Log his goal for Journey Fellowship is “to go where people are to meet their real needs — not just financial needs, but relational and parental needs.” He said he wasn’t suggesting Destin’s other churches had failed to do that, but he hoped people who haven’t “clicked” with other congregations might find a home with Journey Fellowship.

“One of the passions I have,” he said, “is that I think the community should be a better place because the church is in it.”