{"id":656892,"date":"2026-05-21T18:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/656892\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:05:10","slug":"bethel-church-moves-closer-to-major-gym-ministry-center-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/656892\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethel church moves closer to major gym, ministry center expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHEL \u2013 The town<\/a>\u2019s environmental watchdogs signaled their support for a $1.7 million building project<\/a> that would triple the size of a church with a “community-focused” gym and ministry center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does seem like a general vast improvement to the site so I would be leaning toward approval,\u201d said Danielle Monroe, chair of Bethel\u2019s wetlands commission, shortly after closing a public hearing about expansion plans by Danbury-Bethel Seventh-Day Adventist Church<\/a>\u00a0on Turkey Plain Road. \u201cI have taken a consensus of our present commission members, and we are leaning towards approval.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expansion plan needs the blessing of Bethel\u2019s environmental watchdogs because some of the extra parking that is proposed would be in the protected 100-foot buffer that surrounds Sympaug Pond. A formal vote by the wetlands commission, which could come as soon as its June 22 meeting, would clear the way for the church to seek final approval with Bethel\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission.<\/p>\n

“We are committed to being thoughtful and respectful as we move forward. We don\u2019t want to disrupt. We want to contribute,\u201d said Bruno Louren\u00e7o, pastor of the church, during a public hearing in April. \u201cI do want this facility to be a beacon of light and support for our families in town.\u201d<\/p>\n

An engineer working for the church told the wetlands commission during a public hearing on Monday that the church was responding to the town\u2019s ecological requests for the 4-acre site, including provisions for butterflies and box turtles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe added two butterfly gardens at the south end of the building (where) \u2026 the southern exposure would be perfect for them,\u201d said Thomas Nelson. \u201cAnd during a six-week period in May and June, a qualified individual would be required to monitor the site on a daily basis” for box turtles.<\/p>\n

Beth Cavagna, the town\u2019s former planning director who serves as Bethel\u2019s interim wetlands agent, said the church had also checked the important water quality boxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of those applications where you are going from no water quality treatment and no stormwater management into a highly sensitive area, and now you (are going to) have a complete updated system,\u201d Cavagna said at the Monday hearing. \u201cI am very pleased to see the changes that were made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plans by the church represent the first phase of a larger vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second phase will be establishing a Christian school,\u201d Louren\u00e7o said during an interview in April. \u201cOnce we pay off phase one, phase two is building a second floor for the classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current plans call for gym include bleacher space, locker rooms, and a kitchen. The parking lot would expand from 63 spaces to 115 spaces.<\/p>\n

The pastor stressed during the April public hearing that the new gym and ministry center was being built because \u201cwe want to serve the community even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis facility will allow us to extend services to the community, offering different activities and initiatives,\u201d the pastor said. \u201cI envision this place to be a community-focused location.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHEL \u2013 The town\u2019s environmental watchdogs signaled their support for a $1.7 million building project that would triple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97,253575],"class_list":["post-656892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-news-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}