FORMERLY a squash centre and soon to be a church, a long-empty building on 80 Taralga Rd will be transformed following Council approval on Tuesday night.
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The application, lodged by the Goulburn Christian Life Centre (CLC) earlier this year, will change the use of the building to a place of public worship and allow for extensive renovations; fitting out the building into a fully functional church complete with a stage, Sunday school facilities, kitchen and office.
The CLC, currently local in Sloane St, had been eyeing off the space for some time, Treasurer Ciril Boltezar told the Post in January.
Members of the congregation have been saving their pennies for some 15 years, he said.
“We took interest in it a couple of years ago, but there were a number of issues and so it was taken off the market. When it came back on the market late last year we went for it,” he said at the time.
“Where we are now is a rented premises and really not adequate for our needs. While we can fit people in our hall, there’s no appropriate area for our children. With any rental property there’s the usual landlord restrictions and we really have no capacity to expand.
“Every time we want to do something outside our regular church on Sundays it became a real hassle.
“With a permanent presence here we would be able to impact the community even more, and if we wanted to open up for community work we could. We just don’t have the room now.”
But, a lot of work is required to get it over line including resurfacing the existing car park, fully soundproofing the facility including the replacement of all existing glass and the construction of a noise barrier around the car park.
Further, hours of operation will be limited to 8am to 9pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 8:30pm Sunday.