November 2024 Update

(Originally Emailed to HTOC Faithful Listserv November 30, 2024)

Beloved in Christ, 

       Glory to Jesus Christ! The Building Committee has good news.  Based on initial comments from a City of Durham preliminary site plan review, we are hopeful that we may not have to trench a long distance to our new property in order to get access to city water.  If the final site plan approval agrees with this initial assessment, it would mean that instead of spending a rather large amount of money (~$700K)  just getting water to the site, we could  spend a large portion of that money (~$500K) directly on the building itself!  The City of Durham required us to submit a rather detailed plan of the site and potential building so that we could finally get a solid answer about how we would get access to water. In addition, we learned more about a number of other items like parking, sidewalk requirements, fire access, and yes, we even discovered random minutia like the fact that certain types of magnolia trees are forbidden by Durham.

       You have all seen the design mentioned above on our website, at the feedback meetings, and the bulletin board downstairs. That design is the option used in the first submittal to Durham. We have asked Presbytera Mirela Tudora (our design architect) to generate some other options that vary in both aesthetic and cost to build. The layouts are essentially the same. She has generated some preliminary designs and we are waiting for our builder to give us some general, high-level cost estimates for each design. Once we get those broad estimates, we will be able to share the designs (along with their projected price tags). Do not worry, we will announce this opportunity in advance because we genuinely want to get a response from each of you. It is our hope that your responses to these options will give us guidance on which design to hone in on and work out the next fine level of details. The next step after that will be a capital campaign to assess how much money all of us will be able to collectively offer to the project. With that information we will know what we can borrow and what we can ultimately afford to build.

       Please pray for everyone involved in the design, development, building, and financing (this includes you!) of the building that God wants us to build. We are building not just for His glory and our salvation, but for the salvation of generations who will become disciples at Holy Transfiguration.