page_title: Towson United Methodist Church
section_title: Renovation and expansion project
hierarchical_section_title: Towson United Methodist Church / Current building and facilities / Renovation and expansion project
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial view looking west of Towson United Methodist Church in the 1960s, at the interchange of the Baltimore Beltway (Interstate&#160;695, left side of photo) and Maryland Route 146, Towson, Maryland (U.S.)
context_page_description: Towson United Methodist Church is a large United Methodist Church in the historic Hampton subdivision of Towson, a suburb in Baltimore County, Maryland. Its past, rooted in 19th-century America and subsequent growth in the two centuries since then, have closely paralleled the nation's political and sociological trends. It was a congregation split asunder in 1861 on the eve of the American Civil War in a border state of divided loyalties, which eventually reunited and built a church in the post–World War II era of the 1950s, a time of reconciliation and rapid growth by mainline Protestant denominations, especially in the more affluent suburbs.
  The 1,000-member church, pastored since July 2017 by Mark Johnson, has a number of community outreach programs, including an accredited child care center and a boy scout troop, and actively supports a home for unwed mothers, overseas missions, and Habitat for Humanity projects. The congregation worships in a 1,000-seat sanctuary built in 1958. The large building's prominent 235-foot spire and cupola, a landmark visible for miles from the nearby Baltimore Beltway, has been called "the beacon of Towson".
context_section_description: Towson United Methodist Church is in the midst of a $3-million phased renovation and expansion project started in 2006. In the first phase, completed in 2007, an elevator and additional facilities were installed for improved disabled accessibility, along with a new fire sprinkler system and replacement of the building's climate control system (HVAC). Additional classrooms in an expanded education wing are planned in future phases of a multiyear master plan adopted by the church in 2005.
  To help fund the future works, the church announced plans in January 2008 to sell 5 acres (20,000 m²) of undeveloped, wooded property it owns on Hampton Lane to Shelter Development Corp. for construction of a senior citizen housing complex. A zoning change application was submitted to Baltimore County officials to allow sixteen residential units per acre (current zoning limits density to two residential units per acre) for a total of 80–100 beds. The Hampton Improvement Association, representing neighboring Hampton, Maryland residents, said they " ...oppose[d] zoning changes that would allow higher density residential development and require trees to be knocked down". Then-pastor David Cooney told the Baltimore Sun, "We entered into this with Shelter, believing this is a good use for the land – that this is a good company and a needed service". In the face of community objections, however, Shelter and the church subsequently announced on March 3, 2008, that the development plans had been dropped. A Shelter official said that his company and Towson United Methodist Church had jointly come to the conclusion that "this is not something we are going to pursue". Cooney said, "It had become clear that we weren't going to be able to reach a compromise and we certainly don't want to be at war with our neighbors". In the wake of the plan's shelving, the president of the Hampton Improvement Association told the Towson Times that his group wishes to work with Towson United Methodist Church to find an alternative use for the land besides commercial development, as they "don't want to preclude the church from trying to get some money out of it." In April 2008, Cooney said that the church "did not set out to sell this land; the proposal came to us, and we have no other plans to sell or develop the land".
caption: Foreground: the church's wooded property, part of which was proposed for development in 2008
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