Letter: Keep church out of district plan

The Heights District Plan is out for comment until Feb. 23. Why is the Vancouver Heights United Methodist Church area included in the HDP?

A key driver in the HDP was sustainability. Making our churches zoned for the possibility of future commercialization threatens that social sustainability. I cannot speak for the other churches affected by the rezoning, but the Methodist church should not be included in the boundaries of the HDP for the following reasons:

• It is an outlier to the boundaries of the HDP. The zoning belongs with the neighborhood, not with the potential of being commercially zoned in the future.

• The zoning should return to the neighborhood if the church’s situation changes in the future.

• If it is zoned as mixed-use, it has the potential of forcing the church to close or change due to economic pressure.

• The Methodist church already conforms to the concepts of the HDP with green spaces and public services.

Please do not rezone the Methodist church as part of Vancouver’s Comprehensive Plan. We want to keep the Methodist church part of our neighborhood. We like our peaceful neighborhood as it is.