Salem Lutheran Church has plans to expand its current religious and pre-K–8 school campus, which sits just over 2 miles west of Hwy. 249 in Tomball. The idea: to develop roughly 100 acres adjacent to its existing facilities, adding new school structures and landscaping behind the pond-front church building shown in the photo at top, taken from above Lutheran Church Rd. The parking lot pictured on the left would also be enlarged, and a new complex of athletic fields would abut it to the south.

The master plan also includes not only these additions, but also a 73-lot residential area to the far west:

***

Salem Lutheran is still mulling whether to move forward with that cul-de-sac-happy neighborhood — which it says would be “tied to the church with walking trails and will most likely be an age-targeted community of residents involved in the church.” The only street connections to and from it would be via Fred Petrich Rd. and the proposed new collector road at the south end of the site.

Under Houston’s planning rules, the church would typically be required to run another east-west road through the middle of the site because the distance between Fred Petrich and the proposed collector spans nearly double the maximum 1,400 ft. within which a street intersection is required. This week, the city’s planning commission will vote on whether to grant the church a variance, permitting an exception to that requirement.

Photo: Salem Lutheran Church. Map and site plan: BGE