First Baptist Church building at 37511 Church Ave., Dade City.
A neighborhood meeting held at the former First Baptist Church building on Church Avenue in Dade City on Sept. 20 had some tense moments as neighbors disagreed on the fate of the building.
The meeting was called by Steve Smith, a resident of Church Avenue, who is under contract to purchase the building, to discuss his plans for its future use. Those in attendance were mostly residents of Church Avenue and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many opposed Smith’s plans, and some were waiting to be convinced. Of those who opposed the plan, some wanted to see the building torn down.
The building is the former meeting place of First Baptist Church of Dade City, which moved to a property on Smith Road and changed its name to Discover Fellowship Church under the leadership of Pastor Randy Huckabee.
Smith, who has been a strong organizer of the Church Street Christmas for years, decided to purchase the building for $1.95 million and repurpose it as a community center, where concerts, weddings, and other events would generate income to cover the mortgage while maintaining the appearance of a church.
Community opposition arose, however, spearheaded by Church Ave resident Bob Larkin, who feared that the facility could potentially be used for a purpose inconsistent with the historic and quiet ambience of the street.
Smith originally applied to the Dade City Commissioners to change the zoning from its current designation of RS2 to RIO, which would allow for a variety of business and office uses, but he rescinded his request, choosing instead to work within the RS2 guidelines and pursue purposes that would be allowed under conditional uses.
“After that meeting that we had at City Council, the next morning I went over to the city to see what we could do under current zoning to see if there’s any possible way to, you know, make it work under current zoning,” Smith said to begin the neighborhood meeting. “That’s why we’re here today, there’s a way to do everything that we talked about last time, having, you know, weddings and concerts.”
Smith explained that under conditional uses, religious uses were permitted, as well as a bed and breakfast and a private club. He said he already had a church that wanted to rent the former sanctuary area, and that the second floor west wing could be converted to be a bed and breakfast and a private club established to coordinate usage and to arrange for concerts and other events such as weddings.
Questions calling into doubt Smith’s ability to afford the project and questioning his ability to properly complete such a project followed. Others criticized him for not having prepared plans to show them. He said he didn’t need to have plans for the meeting, but he would have them when he went before the planning commission, which will happen on Oct. 1.
The atmosphere grew more tense after some speakers cast doubt on his character and the truthfulness of his statements. Some attendees wandered from the subject at hand into claims that he tried to commercialize Church Street Christmas. Smith denied the claim and responded to some of the challengers, calling them liars.
The exchange began to heat up, motivating newly installed Dade City Police Chief Ann Starling to come forward and calm the meeting down, “Can we not call each other liars?” she said. “Okay, let’s not do that. Let’s not, and please, let’s keep this professional. We can agree to disagree. This is an informational session where we can ask respectful questions, and then we can be respectful.”
Starling said later that she had come to the meeting at some citizens’ requests. “We just wanna make sure everybody feels safe, because ultimately they’re neighbors, right?”
The meeting cooled, but the comments continued in much the same vein as they had previously. As the meeting was nearing its end, Bob Larkin stood up and said that he had been a member of the church when he was young, and he said he was baptized in the baptismal in the back wall. It was not that he had no ties to the building, but his opinion was that the church needed to be torn down and returned to residential property, matching the look of the rest of the street.
“This is not a lucrative investment; the money aspect of it does not add up,” he said. “That’s the reason why we’re trying to figure out how much financial computation and true understanding you have of what it is that you’re doing. That’s the reason why we’re looking for that information from you. That’s why we want facts and not just supposition.”
“[The church building] was owned by the Reverend, and basically there were two other houses on it, so basically there were four buildings,” he continued, “One of them housed the church, and then the other three were the parsonage and then there were two other houses. That’s the reason why a lot of us are very insistent upon it, either functioning as a church, as the reverend originally wanted it, or to be turned into housing. The church has moved on here. The church is no longer a church when the membership has moved out and gone to another location. We can say that this is a building. Steve wants to save the building. That’s great, but it needs to be for the right reasons and the right people. If it were like a Christian school or something like that, where they could teach people out here like that, it would be different. He wouldn’t see me up here against it. If it’s not that, and if it’s not a church, then you are opening the gateways to all of your properties.” He said his opposition was not personal and that he would oppose anyone who was trying to do the same thing Smith was attempting.
The meeting ended with no compromise or resolution of the opposing positions.
Ava Larkin, daughter of Bob Larkin, grew up on Church Avenue and supports her dad, although she is not completely opposed to the concept Smith has presented. Following the meeting, she said, “We’re all trying to, as much as we get emotionally involved in it, exist on facts. That’s what we’re trying to do, and right now there are no facts supporting that this is a viable endeavor either for him financially or for maintaining the district that we have here without potentially losing the residential and church.”
“This isn’t just about right now,” her father added. “We need to think about the domino effect, okay? And that’s the reason why I was talking about being very careful about what comes in here. Because when you put the wrong thing in here, the domino effect is that next thing you know, this property now has a reason to be rezoned.”
Smith is staunch in his position. “They’re gonna have to choose what they want because I’m buying it, and then, it’ll be up to me what goes on that lot. I’m not gonna be able to make my money back on it by tearing it down and building six homes. He maintains that, while he does need to make money in the investment, he wouldn’t do something to harm the community or the street, and that one of his main goals is to preserve the church as a major contribution to Church Street Christmas.
