The Town of Wallkill Planning Board has set a public hearing date for Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. for the new Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses Place of Worship, located at 500 E. Main St., Middletown.

Introduced by the JW Congregation Support Inc., the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses would be a new place of worship for those practicing the restorationist Christian denomination. At approximately 5000 square feet, the Kingdom Hall sits on a 2.72-acre parcel located in the Highway Commercial Zoning District on East Main St. The congregation plans to have three meetings a week and one weekend service during non-peak hours. No kitchen facilities are proposed.

On Wednesday, Jan. 17, the Town of Wallkill Planning Board and the representatives for the Kingdom Hall discussed the major concerns and developments of the building since the initial proposal of the project. While the Kingdom Hall provided parking in accordance with the Town Code Section 249-12 providing in excess of 1 space per 4 seats, the Board questioned how they planned to make it feasible if they proposed the required amount of an open floor plan of 122 seats in the building with 74 parking spaces. The board was concerned with the type and seat layout that the Kingdom Hall would have, which would determine whether the Town Code Section 249-12 would be enforced, as the provision would only be applicable if fixed seating is provided.

“It all centers around parking,” said Board member Andrew Guattery. “You can slide as many ganged seats together as you want in the door once the building is built, so we’ve got 75 parking spaces now and the requirement if we were treating it as an open floor would require 122. Since we don’t have seating that’s specifically mounted to the floors and doesn’t meet the requirements for a fixed, then we should note in the plans about that because you don’t have a lot of room with the layout you have to add 40 more spaces that is required.

Otherwise without the note, we’re gonna start having problems where cars can’t park or there’s traffic down the hill.”

The applicant was asked to include a building floor plan depicting the seat layout as if fixed seating is not proposed, parking would be provided in the amount of 1 space per 40 square feet of the building area.

The applicant is required to provide a loading zone to accept deliveries, ensuring that no loading will occur during regular assembly times.

The board also approved a stone wall along the perimeters of the building which would provide a secluded look.

The next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. at 99 Tower Dr., Building A, Middletown.