A Coolum church is aiming to provide more facilities for the community by adding a youth hall and cafe.
Adapt Town Planning, on behalf of the Coolum Beach Baptist Church, has applied to the Sunshine Coast Council for a material change of use for an extension to a place of worship, community facilities and a food and drink outlet.
The church, on David Low Way at Coolum Beach, currently has approval for a place of worship and indoor and outdoor sports.
The extension would increase the floor area by more than third with the addition of a youth hall at the northern end of the current building.
A cafe with indoor and outdoor seating would be added at the north-east corner of the church, opening on to an existing playground.
Interim church coordinator Greg Blunden said the church facilities were already well used but the changes would allow it to be more self-contained and fill a gap in the area.
“We’ve got a number of community groups that use our facilities and what we want to do is offer them more rather than them have to go somewhere else,” Mr Blunden said.
“We’ve got playgroups with young mums and there is nowhere in Coolum that has a playground with a cafe.
“The idea is to have a cafe that mums can come to for a cup of coffee and there’s a playground that’s fully fenced, and they can sit there and watch while the kids go wild.”
Mr Blunden said the church facilities were currently used six day a week by mothers’ groups, playgroups, karate clubs and more, and the new hall would provide more space and flexibility.
The church extended its reach into the community when it established the Coolum Crusaders Soccer Club, and sees room to do more in the sporting realm with the new hall.
“With the sports hall, we’re looking at something else as well – pickleball. We’ll paint a pickleball court on the floor and with our car park out the back, we’ll put a pickleball court on that as well,” he said.
Mr Blunden said it was hoped the added venue would provide space for more young people to get involved in activities.
“Some of these kids, we feel for them. We want to see them here once it’s done,” he said.
The new hall will have its own access but will connect through doors to the existing main hall of the building. It will be self-contained with a toilet and sink, and will have two small side room rooms.
“It will allow us to free up the big hall for other activities as well,” Mr Blunden said.
The church would end up with 65 car parks after the extension, 12 short of the required number for the facilities under the town plan, but a town planning report submitted with the application suggests that should not be an issue as different groups will use different parts at different times.
The report also points out that the church is on a public transport route with bus stop outside.
Mr Blunden said the church would wait for the application process to play out before a timeline was set for construction, but he anticipated it would be built in stages.
The church had already received some generous donations which would assist with the cost, he said.
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