Hourly Update

Churches find it hard to find affordable property in Phoenix

PHOENIX - Soaring real estate prices are making it harder for churches, synagogues and mosques to find affordable property in Queen Creek, Peoria and other parts of metropolitan Phoenix. Groups that have long provided congregations with construction money are realizing that they may need to provide help for land acquisition in Arizona and other high-growth Western states. "Until you get a facility, you can't staff, you can't operate and you can't produce the level and quality of a worship experience they expect," said the Rev. Augie Iadicicco of Saving Grace Lutheran Church, which meets at Queen Creek Middle School. The Southwest Church Planting Network, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of America, has provided thousands of dollars to help build new churches in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma over the past decade. But Brad Bradley, the network's executive director, said the Texas-based group realizes soaring land prices are leaving churches in the dust. The group is developing a land acquisition aid program. "If we wait too late, the price of land is going so high so fast," Bradley said. Harold Christ, a developer in metro Phoenix, is working with Florida-based Vision USA to solve the problem in a different way. Vision USA sends budding congregation leaders through assessment and training to determine if they are prepared to plant a new church. Christ sits on the executive board of Vision USA Arizona, a branch of the organization that works with developers, landowners and retiring farmers to set aside land for religious facilities of all denominations. "What we're trying to do in communities we build is do exactly that, build a community," Christ said. As many as 200,000 houses are expected to be built between the U.S. 60 and the Gila River Reservation over the next couple of decades, and Christ said just one church has been planned for the area. According to Phil Spry with Church Plant Strategies in Raleigh, N.C., an area is considered saturated when there is one church for every 1,000 residents. Under that formula, communities such as Chandler, Peoria, Queen Creek, Buckeye and Apache Junction are already vastly underserved. Christ said developers, landowners and builders have benefited the most from a hot real estate market, and his group is now asking them to give back.