SJD 2030

As we work towards our SJD2030 vision, we have a wonderful and important opportunity to better align our facilities with our mission of Changing Lives for God in Christ as parishioners Gather in Christ, Grow as Disciples, and Go on Mission. With the exception of the church renovation in 2005, we have not significantly improved our facilities to support our ministry needs in over thirty years.

Our architects and members of our Master Plan committee interviewed representatives from each of our ministries to understand their current and long-term space needs. Those needs will be summarized in a space program, which will function as the needs basis for the Master Plan design.

The Master Plan will be completed by September 2024. It will include the proposed “Phase One” project at a conceptual level, along with subsequent phases of work in order of their priority. These documents will be presented to the congregation in another Town Hall. After the Master Plan has been approved, the church may elect to pursue the design and construction of the Phase One project at a time of its choosing.

The Master Plan design will include the improvements to our campus that are needed to support our mission and fulfill the Master Plan goals. We do not know yet what the exact nature of the campus improvements will be. They may include new buildings, renovations, or both.

While the North Lawn is owned by SJD, it is platted separately from our main campus and must comply with the deed restrictions of River Oaks Property Owners (ROPO). We are exploring the possibilities for the North Lawn that would allow it to better serve our ministry needs, and plan to discuss those possibilities with ROPO to help determine our options.

Parking is often an issue, particularly during the week when we have many programmed activities. While available parking is not currently a significant hindrance to attending our worship services and Sunday School, it is not ideal, and we believe it will become an increasing problem as we grow over time. With this in mind, we believe it will be important to add parking to our campus while we continue to partner with our neighbors to satisfy a portion of our parking needs. We are now exploring ways we can consider adding parking to our campus.

We plan to use this area for the required storm water detention for the project.

The design team can study an option to allow access from the underground parking to the Church. However, there are significant space limitations and structural challenges to providing this access, such as proximity to existing foundations.

The potential for flooding will be addressed by the Civil Engineer for the project. The engineering may include a combination of flood barriers and a pumping system.

The Julia Garden provides a wonderful respite from the city and offers a beautiful and inviting image of natural beauty as a foreground to our church-facing River Oaks Boulevard. As we balance all our campus needs, we may consider options to reconfigure, or perhaps relocate the Julia Garden to another area of our campus.

In the current design, there is a pathway in the same location, on the center axis of the Church, that will connect the Church through the reconfigured circle drive, and to the relocated Julia Garden in the North Lawn.

While we cannot guarantee that the SJS classrooms in the courtyard just to the west of the HLC will continue to be available on Sundays for small group meetings, we have an excellent working relationship with SJS where they use our space and are confident that the school will continue to allow us to use the classrooms.

This timing will be determined by the continued growth and space needs of the church after Phase One has been completed.

We believe at this point a reasonable range is $40 to $60 million. That said, our design is far from final, and the range is likely to change. As things progress with the design and cost, we will update parishioners.

None - the Episcopal Diocese of Texas does not fund the construction or refurbishment of buildings on parish properties.