Dan Bellows was approved by Winter Park City Council to put a steeple on his rental space shaped like a church called Winter Park Wedding Chapel (Website) at 216 W. Lyman Ave.
The steeple will nearly double the height of the church. The steeple is 19 ft 8 inches. The church is 23 ft 4 inches tall.
Despite it being built in 1935, it's not deemed a historical building by the City of Winter Park.
The rental space is zoned business but is surrounded on two of its three sides by homes.
The steeple addition was approved “based on a finding that said features are compatible with adjacent projects" and these three reasons:
- Many other Churches within residential neighborhoods have steeples that exceed the height limits of the surrounding buildings
- The City has permitted other height variances for such things as the cupola on the roof of the Chamber of Commerce/Welcome Center building and at the Douglas Grande building at New York Avenue and Morse Blvd. However, those were located in commercial/business locations.
- The small nature of a steeple and the history of the building as Church were criteria in support.
From City Council notes:
Grant Chapel was constructed in 1935 at 301 West New England Avenue as an African Methodist Episcopal Church. As the congregation dissipated the Church became inactive and in 2002 the property and church building were sold to (Dan Bellows). In 2013 the City Commission approved the relocation of the Grant Chapel to the current location at 216 West Lyman Avenue and rezoned that property to office (O-2) to allow a business use of that building.