Denver Neighborhood Protests Church Expansion

February 7, 2002

Source: Rocky Mountain News

On February 7, 2002, the Rocky Mountain News reported that "residents of The Meadows subdivision are battling the town's largest church over 53 acres that could be annexed into Castle Rock [CO] and transformed into a regional religious center... Neighbors say they don't object to a new $7 million Church Of The Rock being put directly to their west at the end of Cherokee Drive. They just don't want everything else that comes with it... "This isn't a church. It's a mega-church," said Jamie Kimbrough, a Meadows resident who is helping lead a petition drive against the plan... 'Fighting this is a hard thing to do because I'm a Christian,' Kimbrough said Wednesday. 'But it's not like we're trying to fight God here. We just don't want the traffic'... In addition to the potential 1,200-member church, the land could be home to a three-building, 131-person assisted-living facility and a 200-student school that serves kindergarten through 12th grade... A final decision on the annexation is expected this spring. If it is rejected, Councilwoman Millie Bennett said the church shouldn't take it personally."