Traditional Church Design by Licensed Architect

Request for ALABAMA LICENSED Architectural & Engineering Design Fee Proposal – Church Building, 430 Sectionline St., Gurley, AL

Good morning,

I’m working with a church on a proposed ground-up fellowship/education building at 430 Sectionline St., Gurley, Alabama 35748, and I’d like to request a proposal for the architectural and engineering services necessary to develop the project through permitting and construction.

The current concept is a one-story building of approximately 3,600 SF, roughly 60’ × 60’, with approximately 10-foot interior ceilings. The preliminary program includes a fellowship hall, kitchen, pastor’s study, office, three classrooms, men’s and women’s restrooms, storage, corridors, and supporting mechanical/electrical areas. I can provide our preliminary floor plan, exterior concepts, and conceptual site layout as a starting point.

For purposes of helping with your initial review, we have also reviewed the Town of Gurley Zoning Ordinance No. 2025-001, adopted January 7, 2025. The property is being treated as R-2 Low Density Residential zoning, with the proposed church use falling under an Institutional Use / Place of Assembly classification. The ordinance defines a place of assembly with up to 199 seats in the main assembly space as a Low-Intensity Institutional Use, and low-intensity institutional uses are permitted by right in R-2.

For R-2, the basic dimensional standards include approximately:

* 30-foot front setback
* 30-foot rear setback
* 8-foot minimum side setback
* 12,000 SF minimum lot area
* 75-foot minimum lot width
* 35-foot maximum building height / 2½ stories

For a permitted nonresidential use in a residential district, the ordinance requires the normal front and rear setbacks and at least an 8-foot side yard unless a greater requirement applies. ordinance_2025-001_gurley_zoning_ordinance.pdf

Because this is an institutional use, we also need to account for buffering along any property lines adjoining residential uses. A low-intensity institutional use adjoining detached single-family residential requires a Class A buffer. The Class A buffer is generally 20 feet wide without a qualifying fence/wall or 10 feet wide with an approved fence/wall, together with the required landscaping.

The fellowship hall is currently approximately 25’ × 50’, or 1,250 SF. Our conceptual layout assumes roughly 80 occupants/seats, although we would like you to confirm the appropriate code occupant load during design. Gurley requires one parking space per four seats in the main assembly space, so our preliminary site concept currently shows approximately 24 parking spaces, including accessible parking, subject to your site and code review.

Since this is nonresidential development, Gurley requires a formal site-plan review, so we would like your proposal to include or coordinate the civil/site components necessary for approval.

Please provide an estimate for a complete design package that would include, as applicable:

* Architectural plans and code analysis
* Floor plans, elevations, building sections and details
* Structural foundation and framing design
* Mechanical/HVAC plans and calculations
* Electrical plans, service calculations and lighting
* Plumbing plans
* Life-safety/egress plans
* Accessibility/ADA compliance
* Civil/site layout
* Parking and accessible parking
* Grading and drainage
* Stormwater considerations
* Utility coordination
* Fire access/hydrant coordination as required
* Landscaping/buffer requirements
* Permit-ready construction documents
* Coordination and response to plan-review comments through permit issuance

We are currently comparing exterior options including full brick veneer and metal siding, so we would also like the architectural documents to accommodate final material selection once the church chooses its preferred finish.

Please let me know your estimated design fee, anticipated timeline, what disciplines would be included directly in your proposal, and whether any services—such as civil, surveying, geotechnical, fire protection or other specialty engineering—would need to be contracted separately.

Our goal is to establish the design and engineering cost early so that we can incorporate it into the church’s preliminary project budget and move toward a permit-ready set efficiently.

Thank you, and I look forward to working with you.

Best regards,
Sean