Church eyes former IGA for new campus
This former Hensley’s IGA supermarket building on Andersonville Highway could soon become the home of the new Church at Anderson Crossing, if the city of Norris approves a zoning change. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The Church at Sterchi Hills on Dry Gap Pike plans to build a 400-seat auditorium in the former Hensley’s IGA building in the Anderson Crossing area at the corner of Andersonville Highway and Norris Freeway (U.S. 441), said Robbie DeJarnette, the church’s administrative and groups pastor.
“We’re looking to purchase it and plant a campus there,” he said. “We have deep roots in Anderson County, and this is a chance for us to come home. We’re excited about it.”
DeJarnette, a former campus pastor for Faith Promise Church in Clinton and a former member of the Anderson County Planning Commission, said that he and the church’s lead pastor, Dr. Joel Dew, are from Anderson County. Dew’s mother lives in Norris, he added.
The church’s plans to buy the 3.99-acre property depend on the site’s current owners, Ken Seaman and Dave Moore of Powell, getting city of Norris approval to add religious establishments to the list of allowed uses in the city’s current C-2 commercial zones. That’s the zoning now in effect for the parcel.
“We’re going to the Planning Commission on Oct. 5 to ask for the change,” Seaman told The Courier News.
Whether the Planning Commission approves the change or not, an ordinance to allow churches in the C-2 zone will still appear on the City Council’s agenda for its Oct. 12 regular meeting, and it must be passed on two readings to take effect. The council can override the Planning Commission on the measure.
The building most recently served as a location for the Tennessee College of Applied Technology, which had been allowed to use the former grocery’s space free of charge.
Still housed in the center are two hair salons and a gun store. It’s also the former location of the Anderson County government offices that collect real estate taxes and sell and process motor vehicle registrations. That office moved to the shopping center next door, which houses the Anderson Crossing Pharmacy and other businesses.
Seamon and Moore bought the IGA property for $1.2 million in January 2023 under their business name, 3310 Real Estate Partnership.
Earlier Seaman told the Norris City Council that he and Moore planned to put a secure, climate-controlled indoor storage facility in the approximately 20,000 square feet of space formerly used by the grocery store.
Norris changed its zoning ordinance in March 2023 to accommodate such indoor storage in the C-2 zone, but Seaman told The Courier News later that he and Moore had decided against opening the storage facility.
Besides the former grocery space, there were an additional 4,000 square feet that had recently been used by the Anderson County High School wrestling team as a training facility.
DeJarnette said the new location would be called “The Church at Anderson Crossing,” and would be expected to draw primarily from current Sterchi Hill church members who live in the Clinton, Norris and Andersonville areas.
