New church seeks to convert house in Gum Springs

A church is under consideration for the Gum Springs area, according to a proposal filed with Fairfax County this month. 

The applicant, Cornerstone Church, is seeking the county’s blessing to develop at 7900 Fordson Road, just across Sherwood Hall Lane from Bethlehem Baptist Church.

The lot is occupied by a 28,989-square-foot single-family house built in 1950, according to county property records. The Cornerstone Church of Christ bought it for $200,000 in 1992.

The existing two-story brick building will function as the church. A shed will be relocated, and a gravel parking lot will be replaced with an 18-spot parking area.

The Nov. 2 special permit application notes that it will involve no changes to the current building. 

“The proposed changes and design shall add more previous area to the site via the parking lot in comparison to its existing condition,” Lheep Kim, a principal for Greenway Engineering, wrote in a statement of justification for the application.

According to the application, the lot already provides parking to surrounding areas, resulting in “minimal” changes to traffic and overall impact.

“The church and restructured parking lot shall have no adverse impact on traffic since the church is designed to be for surrounding local community,” the application states. “Therefore, only local neighborhood traffic shall be in consideration, which this existing road is already designed for.”

The area is currently zoned as residential, so using the property as a church requires a special permit from the county. 

The church would operate daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, with an estimated 50 patrons visiting and 10 employees staffing the site.

Photo via Google Maps