Facilities committee refuses to advance church’s permanent easement request, forwards NCDOT Skyway revision to board

The Union County Public Schools facilities committee on April 29 declined to advance a request from God's Word Only Ministries for a permanent easement to use the district’s bus drive at Forest Hills campus, and separately agreed to forward a North Carolina Department of Transportation request to revise an existing temporary Skyway Drive easement.

Mr. Moore, a facilities staff member, told the committee that God's Word Only Ministries — which acquired a parcel that the board previously owned and later sold — asked to obtain a permanent easement to use the district bus drive as an egress. "Staff is recommending uh to not grant this easement," Moore said, adding that the district typically does not allow third parties to have easements that permit traffic on bus drives. He showed aerial and recent drone photos comparing current conditions and the ministry’s proposed access.

Committee members raised safety and precedent concerns about allowing permanent third-party access to a bus drive, and discussed whether the organization's plans required a second exit under local code given the estimated 200–300 parking spaces on the ministry's site. After discussion, the committee did not move to forward the request to the full board; Mr. Moore summarized the result by saying, "we don't have the approval of the committee to move forward with this."

Separately, Miss Eml reported that the North Carolina Department of Transportation requested a temporary construction easement revision on Skyway Drive to add roughly 174 square feet to an existing easement created previously; staff noted the affected parcel is small (about 3,500 square feet by GIS records) and that the request is temporary. The committee moved to send the Skyway Drive easement revision to the full board for consideration.

The committee did not make a final determination on permanent easements; the God’s Word Only Ministries request will not be advanced unless members later change their position. The Skyway Drive revision will appear on the next full board agenda.