It was the two picture hanging hooks and an empty spot on the Antioch Baptist Church wall that alarmed Fairfax Station resident Peggy Golden. In her fight against the church expansion, Golden saw an artist's rendering of the proposed church through the window in that spot. Now, the plans remain at large.
"There was a picture on the wall," Golden said. "I was told I could see the plans at the meeting. But there were no plans."
The current church is large enough for 440 people and the proposed church could handle 1,950 people. Assistant pastor Jeffrey Johnson of Woodbridge started out at Antioch as a guest speaker while he was pastor of another church in Washington, D.C. He's seen the congregation at Antioch grow ever since.
"It was a steady incline, most of our growth is word of mouth," he said.
Repeated calls to the pastor Marshall Ausberry were not returned as were calls to Ed Collier, a member of the church construction team.
The church and Golden's house are on Little Ox Road, west of the Fairfax County Parkway. When Golden moved there in 1995, the Little Ox Road was Ox Road and VDOT was building the existing four-lane thoroughfare. Now, Little Ox is a back road that fills up with cars from Antioch overflow on Sundays. The church purchased a 13.1-acre piece of land and is seeking a special exception from the county to build the new church. While Golden's property does not border the church, the traffic, which she fears will extend to seven days a week operation, will disrupt life on Little Ox.
Golden encountered a similar situation with nearby Fairfax Baptist Temple. It grew and incorporated a day care and school operating out of the same building and the traffic got out of hand, according to her friends that live near that church. Sarah Gunnarson, also a neighbor of the church, hasn't seen the church plans either.
"It's fine the way it is now. I'm kind of distressed on how they are going to handle all that traffic," Gunnarson said, remembering the size of the Fairfax Baptist Temple parking lot also.
"That place has a huge parking lot," she said.
According to Golden, the plans are currently with the Fairfax County Board of Zoning. "There will still be a public hearing," she said.
"The plans are with the board of zoning appeals, as long as everything is in order, they'll approve it," Golden said. "They look at it to see that it conforms to the rules of the county, churches come under special consideration."
Supervisor Elaine McConnell (R-Springfield) is aware of the issue.
"I don't see any problem with it," McConnell said. "We don't have much say so with BZA issues. We've only had one call on the issue."
AT ANTIOCH, Collier told Golden that there would be no pre-school or day care. Golden was not reassured by this information. She considered Antioch's plan to build a recreation court a bad sign.
"A recreation court will mean they'll do picnics in the summer and weddings," she said.
One look at the list of the congregation and Golden envisioned traffic coming and going. Church members come from as far away as Woodbridge, Va. and Silver Spring, Md. She could find no church members listed from the surrounding neighborhoods.
The six neighborhoods she was talking about included The Hunt, Donavan's Ridge, Stoney Creek, Ardmore Woods, Fairwood Acres and Huntington Ridge. Golden plans on going around to all the surrounding houses with a petition. Johnson, who lives in Woodbridge, said that most of the congregation is from the surrounding area but also Warrenton, Va. and Clinton, Md.
Johnson has heard a different reaction from some neighbors.
"So far it's been very positive," Johnson said. "At first, it was cautious. We want to be good neighbors."
Johnson said that the attraction from other areas is the way they worship at Antioch. Instead of taking up church service time to handle other matters besides worshipping, they go right into the mass.
"We look at the standards of God's worship," he said.