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Global Mission Church plans to appeal the Frederick County Planning Commission's rejection of its application to build a new sanctuary on the border of Frederick and Montgomery counties.

David Severn of Severn, O'Connor and Kresslein in Frederick, the attorney for Global Mission Church, said leaders plan to file with the county's Board of Appeals to set a hearing in December.

"I'm not surprised," said Kathie Hulley, president of the Clarksburg Civic Association, one of the upcounty groups opposed to the church's plan. "It's by no means done yet."

Silver Spring-based Global Mission Church, a primarily Korean parish affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, was seeking approval to build an 85-foot-tall, 138,027-square-foot church in Frederick County on 88 acres of land zoned for farming.

The parcel borders Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve, a 93,000-acre area where development is restricted. Residents of both counties complained that the church did not belong in the Agricultural Reserve and would obstruct the view from historic sites, such as Sugarloaf Mountain.

The proposed church would have included 67 meeting rooms, a 500-seat dining room and an 18,000-square-foot open room. The project includes a parking lot with 397 spaces and a 1,160-seat sanctuary. The church has about 1,600 members, but no more than 900 would be there at one time, project director and deacon Man Bae Kim said.

Planning Commissioner Bob White, who made the motion for denial, said he agreed with staff reports that the single lane access point from Route 109 in Montgomery County would be a hazard in an emergency situation, and that the 4,999 gallons per day of septic capacity would not be enough to serve the church.

Church leaders said they were willing to reduce the height of the sanctuary from 85 feet to 70 feet at the Planning Commission meeting to address concerns. Severn said that if the proposal had been given more time and church designers had been able to work more closely to address Frederick County planning staffers' concerns, they could have come up with a plan that would have satisfied the requirements.

The case was unusual for several reasons.

Global Mission Church's property straddled the counties' border, and pieces of the project required approval from both. Staff from both counties initially recommended approval for the project. However, after a heated meeting in July, Frederick County staff requested further information from the church because of its unusual size, according to Stephen O'Philips, a planner who reviewed the application. Based on that information, planners were able to judge that the church would use more water than its proposed septic system could handle, he said.

O'Philips said planners made the decision independent of public outcry against the proposal.

"We don't have the legal ability to override code requirements," O'Philips said.

Generally, a building of this size would not be allowed on land zoned for farming in Frederick County, but churches are allowed. Planning commissioners said such a large sanctuary went beyond the scope of the "country church" that lawmakers had envisioned.

Severn had asked that the commission delay the meeting for another 90 days to give designers a chance to meet with county staff and come to a compromise, but the commission denied the request.

Severn said that in the 90 days since the vote was delayed on July 15, staff did not give the church adequate opportunity to meet with staff and make the changes to the plan that would have allowed its approval.

Severn also requested the opportunity to cross-examine county staff and members of the public who gave testimony at the meeting. Although some of the planning commissioners considered that to be irregular, it was allowed under the commission's rules of procedure.

Commissioners made several motions intended to alter the amount of time Severn and his partner Danny O'Connor had to present their case, either taking time away from their rebuttal to grant time for cross-examination, or removing the cross-examination altogether in the interest of saving time.

Eventually, commissioners relented and Severn was allowed to do cross-examinations.

Should the appeal to the county's Board of Appeals fail, church officials could take their case to Frederick County Circuit Court, O'Philips said.

Frederick County Attorney Kathy Mitchell said church leaders could submit a new application, making changes to the site plan that would address staff's concerns, whenever they wished.

"There's nothing to stop them from coming in with a new application," she said.

Staff Writer Susan Singer-Bart contributed to this report.