Does Pastor Oxentenko's God condone men of the cloth being disingenuous? Or maybe the pastor "forgot" his current building plan (which scores of residents testified against a few months ago) is for two buildings totaling 84,000 square feet on a 40,000-square-foot footprint (filed Aug. 13, 2010), twice the square footage of his previous (July 28, 2005) plan? This is quite contrary to his assurances to the Laurel Leader "they have scaled their plans down from two buildings for the church and school encompassing 72,000 square feet, to a single multilevel building with a 28,000-square-foot circumference" ("County Council, church dispute rages on," Leader, Sept. 22). Oxentenko's plan is to build on 33 percent of their 17 acres, which abut the Rocky Gorge Reservoir on documented "highly erodible soil." It is only a stone's throw from Montgomery County — which limits impervious surface to 10 percent so near our drinking water source. Why accept worse environmental standards for Prince George's?

While Oxentenko asserts this is not a "mega-church," it is 3-1/2 times the size of nearby Bethany Community Church, which already looks rather imposing in this rural residential setting. If he wanted only a reasonable size building, as he asserts, wouldn't it easily fit on the 7 acres water and sewer (3.4 original plus 3.6 new) the County Council generously offered?

Barbara Sollner-Webb

Laurel

Barbara Sollner-Webb is vice-president of the West Laurel Civic Association