$7.5 million, 1,248 seats, nothing filed

Nine people spoke at Council last night. Most came about the same thing.

Five days ago we reported that Restoration Church owns 29 acres at Arnold Mill and New Providence, and that the city told us on August 12 nothing had been filed. Both still hold. We held the price until the deed confirmed it. It was $7.5 million, paid December 18, 2025.

The two parcels together run from Arnold Mill Road across to New Providence Road.

What changed last night is the size. Sarah Moen, a Milton resident who lives on New Providence Road, read the church's own announcements, dated August 2 and August 9, into the record: 1,248 seats, more than 100,000 square feet, and 40 acres, which would be about 11 more than they own today. She said the design is roughly 70 percent finished. We have not heard those recordings ourselves.

She also gave Council a timeline. It starts July 24, 2025, she said, when a brokerage agent for the church contacted the city. She was specific that the church itself has never contacted the city, only its outside agents.

Her petition had 1,002 verified signatures this morning.

She was careful about one thing. Nobody is anti-church, she said. The opposition is to any large, high intensity development on AG-1 land, and it stays a land use issue.

We reached Restoration Church for comment on August 10 and have not heard back.

The part you can do something about. Milton is rewriting its land use map right now. That map is what every rezoning argument gets measured against, including this one if it is ever filed. The redlined draft is public at miltonga.gov/2026CompPlanUpdate. It is easier to shape that map now than to argue with it later.

Also Monday. Council approved its annual capital improvements update: $1.2 million spent on Deerfield Park land, the Morris Road widening and a general fund reimbursement, with $2.3 million left. Near term priorities are Deerfield Park, Fire Station 45 and the public safety building. It settled a greenway condemnation at $42,000. Then it went behind closed doors for litigation, personnel and land.

Reported from the meeting recording.