$300,000 a Month to the Council, $20,000 to the Church: A Falmouth Congregation Fights Over Its Own Car Park

• First Assemblies of God Church in Falmouth leased its lot to the Trelawny Parish Council as a car park
• The pastor said the council earned about $300,000 a month while paying the church $20,000
• When the church ended the lease and ran the car park itself, the council issued a stop order
• The mayor said the planning law did not allow a non-profit to operate the facility

A Falmouth church and the Trelawny Parish Council are in a dispute over who may earn money from a car park on the church’s own land near the town’s $7.5-billion cruise port, the Jamaica Observer reported.

The council approached First Assemblies of God Church in 2010 about renting its premises at 6 Seaboard Street for parking, as part of traffic plans for the new cruise port and the pedestrianisation of the town. The council ran the car park for more than two years under a lease. Pastor Anthony Streete said the council earned about $300,000 a month while paying the church $20,000, often late. After talks on renovating the lot broke down, the church ended the lease and began running the car park itself to fund its outreach.

Four months later, the council issued a stop order and enforcement notice, saying the car park breached the Town and Country Planning Act, and warned that “enforcement action will immediately thereafter be taken to secure your compliance”. Streete called the action “wrong” and “very vindictive”. Mayor Garth Wilkinson said the council “acted within the ambit of the law” and that the Act “would not permit” a non-profit organisation to operate such a facility, though the council could. He acknowledged the car park was “a good income source for the council” and said: “We are prepared to up the rental.”

The church’s attorney, Philmore Scott, argued that “the council, having operated the parking lot on the premises has by their own actions changed the use of the land”, and said he would seek an amicable resolution through the local government minister. The church, founded in 1980 with about 125 members, helps people with housing, food, medication, rent and school fees.

This dispute is about land use and income. A church lot in a tourist town became a valuable car park once cruise ships arrived, and the council earned far more from it than the church did. Churches with land near new developments should know what their property is worth before signing a lease, set the rent to reflect it, and check what planning approval is needed for any use other than worship. Lease terms, rent reviews and permitted use need to be settled at the start, not after the money starts coming in.