Fort Worth will require public hearings on Mercy Culture’s ‘religious discipleship center’
.jpg "Mercy Culture Church wants to build a new ‘discipleship center’ but it needs to get approvals from the Fort Worth’s zoning commission and city council.")
Mercy Culture Church’s proposed “religious discipleship center” will require at least two public hearings after a city review of its permit application.
The church is proposing to build a three-story structure with space for a dining hall, exercise room, offices, gathering spaces and two stories of residential sleeping rooms on its campus at 1701 Oakhurst Scenic Drive.
However, the current zoning rules don’t allow for those uses, so the church will need to apply to have the land rezoned.
That process takes at least two months, and will require public hearings before the zoning commission and the City Council.
As of July 17, the city hadn’t received an application to have the land rezoned, a spokesperson for the city’s development services department said in an email to the Star-Telegram.
The earliest the church would be able to get a hearing before the city’s zoning commission would be Sept. 11.
This would be the second time in last two years Mercy Culture Church has applied to rezone a portion of its campus.
The church proposed to build a 100-bed human trafficking victim shelter in 2022, which drew opposition from nearby residents over concerns about parking and the shelter’s proximity to single family neighborhoods.
Mercy Culture lead Pastor Landon Schott called those opposed to the shelter “insane demonic resistance” in a May 2023 sermon.
His wife and fellow lead pastor Heather Schott cited statistics from a 2017 study on modern slavery in an effort to persuade skeptical neighbors during a March 2022 community meeting.
Representatives from Mercy Culture did not respond to an email from the Star-Telegram requesting comment.
.jpg)