Zoning OKs expansion of St. John Vianney BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer WOODBRIDGE - The Zoning Board of Adjustment has unanimously approved the proposed expansion to St. John Vianney Roman Catholic Church in Colonia at a board meeting on April 17. Monsignor Edward O'Neill, who has been pastor of the church for 13 years, stressed to the board that the expansion was not intended for the addition of more parishioners, but for the quality of life for the current 4,000 families who already attend the church. "We have decreased the amount of seating in the parish," said the monsignor. "I think this [expansion] will beautify the church." The church, which is located at 420 Inman Ave., is proposing to expand the existing church building with a 6,375- square-foot, two-story addition to the front of the church's main sanctuary building. The floor area will increase the existing 21,143-square-foot building (including the basement) to a total of 27,518 square feet. The building addition will provide a new entrance lobby, administrative and conference rooms, an elevator, a secondfloor balcony, multipurpose rooms that will hold various functions, and updated restrooms so that they will be accessible to people with handicaps. The applicant is also proposing to realign and re-stripe the parking lot and install painted directional arrows and stop bars on the pavement. Striping for a fire lane is proposed in the circular drop-off area, and an 8-footwide painted pedestrian walkway is proposed through the parking lot. Atotal of 324 parking spaces are proposed as well as four additional parking stalls near the rectory building garage. The church property is on an approximately 10.76-acre parcel of land containing the church, a two-story school building, a convent, a rectory, four trailers and an accessory garage building. Entrance and exit driveways exist with a circular traffic pattern in a counterclockwise design.Ashared parking lot of 238 spaces and lawn areas also exist on the property. Monsignor O'Neill told the board that in his observations, the current parking lot does not fill up, with the exception of the holidays of Easter and Christmas, and he said funeral processions during school days are a rare occurrence. "There probably were two funeral [processions] during the school day in the past five years," he said. The monsignor added that he also has not seen any flooding occur on the premises. Robert Anderson, a longtime church member and Eucharist minister as well as a former Zoning Board member, told the board that it's time to renovate the church. "The building is [approximately] 50 years old," he said. "All our houses need improvements … the church needs much-needed interior and exterior improvements done because of the age of the building."