On May 21 Decatur’s commission approved zoning that paves the way for a small mixed-use project on the east side parking lot of Thankful Baptist Church.
Covering 1.15 of Thankful’s total 3.7 acres, the project would include four live-work town homes facing College Avenue, the ground floor having the option of a single-proprietor type business. It also includes six residential-only town homes facing Meade Road and three single-family homes further south on Meade.
This final plan is a compromise between the city, the church and the Oakhurst community that surrounds it. The original proposal of 22 town homes was clamorously opposed by the neighborhood over several meetings last fall.
Weslee Knapp, president of Decatur-based Keller Knapp Realty and a consultant to Thankful Baptist, said the church is taking bids from “four or five developers.” There is no asking price, he said, but the church is in an area where similar tracts have sold for roughly $1.5 million per acre.
Knapp said the church will use money from the sale for building repairs, particularly on its chapel at College and Feld Avenue, which it hopes to rent out for special events like weddings.
Founded in 1882 Thankful is the second oldest black church in DeKalb County, moving to its current site in 1971. The church hit a high-water mark of attendance from 1984 to 1992 when it routinely held two Sunday services, both packing the sanctuary that seats about 700. Today the church has roughly 250 on the rolls.
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