"I'm super excited to kind of be over that distraction and focus on the things that are really important to us," said Pastor Todd Sapp.
"It's not this neighborhood's fault that they can't pay their bills," said Willie Meggs.
Neighbors of the Northwoods Baptist Church are upset about a vote held last night to rezone the church's property.
County commissioners voted to approve the rezoning during their meeting Tuesday, marking a victory for Northwoods Baptist Church in their attempt to sell the property to pay off outstanding debt.
However, neighbors living near the church who spoke out at the meeting say they're very disappointed about the land rezoning approval and are not giving up just yet.
"Well, nobody's happy, but no body's surprised," said Willie Meggs, president of the Riverwood Acres neighborhood association. He has lived in this area his entire life and at one point, was a member of the Northwoods Baptist Church.
Meggs and other community members are upset about the church wanting to rezone and sell 32 acres of land near their properties in an effort to pay off a $1.1 million debt they have on a temporary worship space.
Meggs doesn't want to sacrifice his lifestyle to fix a problem he didn't cause.
"That's what kind of bums me out a little bit about it is it's not my fault that they can't pay their bills," said Meggs.
Many neighbors in the community rallied together and voiced their wildlife, environmental and increased traffic concerns at the county commission meeting, but the board approved the rezoning.
Signs speaking out are now gone and neighbors are devastated.
Pastor Todd Sapp said he's done everything he can to address their concerns and is now waiting to make their next step.
"We're a church so our next step is to pray and seek God's guidance and his timing will be perfect and He'll show us when the right time to move forward on that is," said Sapp.
The church, surrounded by several neighborhoods sits in Leon County Commissioner Rick Minor's district. Although he voted against the rezoning, he said he understands how rezoning the land to allow a developer to build low density housing could help with the board's affordable housing goals.
"This property of theirs is in what we call the urban services area, which is the area we designate for infrastructure like utilities and sewer and water and its within that area that's where we want to develop," said Minor.
Minor hopes moving forward that any developer will create something compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods in an effort to preserve its character.
Although the rezoning was approved, Meggs said he and the rest of the community are still speaking out.
"We will not give up on it. We will try to hold the zoning and planning people to their word that they will keep the water up there, I don't believe they will, and that they will give buffers," said Meggs.
Sapp said now that the approval has gone through, he's looking forward to mending the church's relationship with the community.
"It will give us an opportunity to reengage with our neighbors and our neighborhood in a way that isn't so structured and business-like just as neighbors once again," said Sapp.
If the church does decide to sell the property and have development on it, a site plan of the proposed development will make its way back to the county commissioners for approval. There is currently no timeline on when that may happen.
