Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church had a pavement problem. The church, located in Northeast Portland’s Cully neighborhood, was surrounded with space for car parking—well beyond what congregants needed or wanted. And the excess blacktop had consequences. 

In the summer, the unused parking lot on the south side of the church trapped and radiated heat into the sanctuary. During the rainy months, the church basement was prone to flooding, owing in large part to a lack of surrounding green space to soak up the water. Plus, the pavement was less than ideal as a playground for the kids at Pequeñitos Childcare, which shares the church building with Morning Star. 

But that was then. After almost two years of work led by Portland nonprofit Depave, the formerly unused south parking lot is now a green oasis, complete with garden beds, a picnic area, play structures, and more. At a grand opening party for the newly-depaved site on May 16, kids ran around the playground area with minimal risk of scraping up their knees on a rough blacktop. Adults admired the freshly-planted trees and garden beds, which were built at several different heights to be accessible to people in wheelchairs and those who can’t crouch in the dirt for long periods of time. 

Rodney Johnson, associate pastor at Morning Star, told the Mercury the church wants the site to facilitate community connection in a new way. 

“The main driver of this work was the question: ‘How can we bring the community together?’” Johnson said at the grand opening celebration. “How can the church serve the community beyond the church service?” 

It took vision to thoroughly transform what was once an 20,000-square-foot slab of pavement, Johnson said. Not only vision—for this particular project, it also took an extended period of negotiations with the city over arcane and convoluted zoning rules. 

Shortly after Depave broke ground on the project in July 2023, the nonprofit ran into problems with a conditional use review imposed by the city’s Bureau of Development Services (now known as Portland Permitting & Development). A conditional use review is required for development projects that aren’t allowed outright due to potential “adverse impacts to the surrounding area,” including on neighborhood character, the transportation network, or other public infrastructure. 

In this case, the problem had to do with the proposed removal of 31 parking spaces from the church’s south lot. This lot was paved in 1968 by a previous occupant, and went beyond what was required for church parking at the time. Now, Portland’s zoning code doesn’t require churches—or any other building under development—to have a minimum number of parking spots. But Depave’s desire to rethink the unused parking spots at Morning Star, while leaving more than 60 spots unchanged, was enough to trigger a months-long review process. 

The permitting bureau’s inflexibility was particularly frustrating for Depave and church leaders because it appeared to go against the city’s own stated interests. Morning Star is a historically Black church in a racially and socioeconomically diverse neighborhood. Pequeñitos Childcare is a Spanish-immersion preschool that seeks to provide affordable childcare and participates in programs like Multnomah County’s Preschool for All. Last year, the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) granted Depave more than $1 million to complete re-greening projects in low-income, racially diverse communities—including at Morning Star. 

“[The city] says it wants to support this kind of project, but it won’t look in the mirror at its own permit requirements and try to ease those for work that’s clearly in the public interest,” Ted Labbe, Depave’s interim executive director, told the Mercury. 

City permitting staff have said they have to adhere to the zoning code requirements, regardless of the specific circumstances. 

While the Morning Star depaving plan was ultimately able to move forward, the city’s conditional use standards for parking could be a problem for similar projects in the future. It’s already proven to be an impediment for other Portland childcare facilities in the past. 

Permitting headaches or not, those involved with the project at Morning Star are enthusiastic about how it turned out and what it will mean for their community. 

“I can see now the church congregation wanting to come out here right after church service and maybe have lunch,” Jean Norwood, who volunteers as the director of projects and programs at Morning Star, told the Mercury. She highlighted the importance of accessibility in the garden and picnic area, as the church has an aging population. 

“They would just like to be able to go to a nice, safe place to sit outdoors and enjoy the environment,” Norwood said. 

Last year, the church was also the recipient of a $3.4 million PCEF grant for the Morning Star Community Resilience Project. Church leaders plan to install solar panels on the roof, which can be used to power the building and provide energy to electric vehicle charging stations on site. They also plan to upgrade the building’s HVAC system to allow for more reliable and energy-efficient heating and cooling. The ultimate goal is for the church to serve as a resiliency hub in the Cully neighborhood, available to people during extreme weather events or other times of need. 

To Johnson, the associate pastor, Morning Star’s plans for conservation and community resiliency are representative of Christian values. 

“[The depaving project] is just one part of a larger plan we’re trying to accomplish over the next few years,” Johnson said. “We are trying to be a beacon in the neighborhood, not just another church.” 

Labbe said Depave is on the hunt for more projects like the one at Morning Star. The nonprofit team is working to do more outreach in parts of the city like East Portland, which has been historically overlooked and lacks the same access to parks, trees, and green space as the rest of the city. 

"These types of projects don't come around very often for us," Labbe said. "We'd love to find the next one."