UPDATES: (Newer Updates are at the top and each new update starts with bold type)

BUILDING UPDATE: The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners met on Tuesday, February 9th and approved our revised master site plan for the Boyette Road campus. Our next step is to meet with the Diocesan Committee on Liturgical Art, Architecture and Environment this Tuesday. If they approve our plans, they will be forwarded to the Bishop for his approval. After Easter, we will begin our Feasibility Study to determine if YOU approve the plans for our new church and parish center. If you agree, we will start fundraising in the Fall.
Praise God! Keep those prayers coming!

Spanish Mission Style: One of the big discussions we have been having is “What did the parishioners mean when they said they wanted our new church to be in a ‘Spanish Mission Style.’” Are we talking about a Spanish Colonial Mission Style, California Mission Style, Caribbean Mission Style or the style of architecture commonly found in many buildings in our area? Probably most people are thinking of the later – hoping that the new church architecture will naturally fit into our community.

This past Sunday: Fr. Bill hosted our second Open Forum. He shared about the progress in getting our revised Master Site Plan approved and about the work our Building Committee is doing to reduce the cost of the building projects. He then shared about how our theology should be reflected in the church building itself and applied that to the proposed design of the baptism font. Our next Open Forum meeting is Sunday, November 8, after the 5:30pm Mass.

Master Site Plan Update: We have been engaged in active discussions with our County officials. With minor changes, our revised site plan may only require an abbreviated review process, saving us time and money! Please keep our parish and civil officials in prayer! We are also aggressively working on drafts for our new church, parish center, and maintenance building. We expect that they will soon be ready for your review and comments. Thank you for your prayerful support!

Master plan site update: Last week we met with Bishop Lynch and presented our revised Master Site plan. He enthusiastically endorsed it and encouraged us to move with haste to design the new church, parish life center, and maintenance/ministry of mercy facility. He also expressed his desire to do all in his power to assist us. The revised plan will now be submitted to Hillsborough County. In the meantime, we hope to present to you our first draft of the buildings for your review after school begins in August.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Tom Doyle at the parish office or visit www.ststephencatholic.org.

Time to Review! The Master Site plan was revised in order to accommodate the expansion of Boyette Road and the insights of our Strategic Plan. We expect our parish to double size in the near future and given the shortage of clergy, we do not anticipate the formation of a new parish. Our priority was to place the church and parish center in a centralized location with close access to the school, maintaining a safe and “green” environment, and convenient parking. We also desired to maximize the fields for play and for our Spring Jubilee. We left extra large “place markers” for buildings so that future generations will have as much flexibility as possible in meeting their needs. The buildings will be constructed in phases as our finances allow. The latest draft of the revised plan is available at the link to the left labeled Master Site Plan. Fill out the e-form to send your suggestions and comments to our building committee.

As always, thank you for caring!

We are now putting the final touches on our Master Site Plan for our Boyette Road campus before submitting it to the Diocese and County for approval. The substance of the plan has not changed since it was presented to the parish. We have adjusted the “place markers” for the buildings to allow for further growth. One small issue has been traffic control. We are trying to decide whether to install speed bumps and/or traffic slowing medians to keep the campus save.

If you have a preference, let us know! Fill out the e-form (link to the left) to send your suggestions and comments to our building committee.

Rome wasn’t built in a year! Nor will St. Stephen! We are trying to design the buildings so that they will be able to accommodate our needs until we can afford to construct all the buildings. For instance, the Maintenance Building may also need to accommodate our Ministries of Mercy until we can afford a separate building. Likewise, the Parish Center will need to house all of our youth ministries until the Youth Center/Gym can be built.

The good news is that we are almost ready to share our Master Site Plan with the Diocese and then the County. God is good!

The latest draft of the revised plan is available online at the left. Click on “Master Site Plan.” If you have a comment or question, fill out the e-form (link to the left) to send your suggestions and comments to our building committee.

Thank you for caring!

Green and Sustainable: As we design our new church and parish center, we are concerned about our environment and the need to ensure that we will be able to afford to keep the buildings clean and in working order. For example, we cannot assume that we will always have a cheap and abundant source of water and electricity. Simple things like the orientation of the buildings and the choice of landscaping, construction materials, and fixtures can result in huge savings for the parish.

Room for All: One of the concerns which was voiced throughout our Strategic Planning meetings is the need for storage. We have heard you and are designing the new church and parish center with storage needs in mind. We plan to have plenty of storage areas in all the buildings and, God willing, will construct a basement for the parish center (believe it or not, we are high enough above the water table to do it!) so that there will be ample storage for our larger events such as the Spring Jubilee so there will not be a need for the storage trailers we presently use. This will be a very economical way to solve one of our perennial problems.

There is a time for planting, there is a time for planning! Given the present economic crisis, this is not the time to start a major capital campaign to build a new church and parish center on our Boyette Road campus. That being said, this IS the time to plan! As they say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!” We are presently reviewing the specifications for our new church, parish center, youth center, pavilion, ministry of mercy building, and maintenance center to ensure that our Master Site plan adequately reflects the growing needs of our parish. The latest draft of the revised plan is online at the link to the left and fill out the eform to send your suggestions and comments to our building committee. Again, thank you for caring.

We Heard You: Last weekend (March 28-29), our architect Rick Swisher and our building committee chair Tim Donahue were present after every Mass to share the latest draft of our revised Master Site Plan for the Boyette Road campus and to gather to your suggestions and comments. Parishioners were very positive about the plan and offered a few suggestions in regard to lighting, traffic management, and site security. Thank you for sharing. If you didn’t get a chance to stop by, please click on the eform and fill out the form to send your suggestions and comments to our building committee. Again, thank you for caring.

Home for All: As we revise the Master Site plan, one of our concerns is that our campus remain open for all of God’s children while maintaining a safe environment for our children. We are redesigning the campus so our children will not have to cross an active roadway, placing the school, church, and cafeteria in close proximity and will soon enclose the school playground with a fence. Another idea is to construct a “Ministries of Mercy” center apart from buildings which will be used by our children. In this way, we will be able to continue to provide assistance to the poor and a place groups such as AA and Al-Anon. We remember that before we can build a church we must BE Church.