A Milton resident told City Council on Monday, Aug. 17, that Restoration Church is designing a 1,248-seat facility topping 100,000 square feet on roughly 40 acres of agricultural land along Arnold Mill and New Providence roads — even though the church has not filed any development application with the city.
Sarah Moen, who lives on New Providence Road, read from the church's own announcements, dated Aug. 2 and Aug. 9, during public comment at the meeting, The Roundabout reported. She told council the design was roughly 70% complete.
Property records show the church paid $7.5 million in December 2025 for two parcels totaling 29 acres. The 40-acre footprint Moen described to council would require about 11 additional acres the church doesn't currently own.
Moen's Change.org petition, "No Mega Churches in Rural Milton, GA," had collected 1,002 verified signatures as of Tuesday, Aug. 18. She launched it June 9.
Addressing the council, Moen said the opposition isn't to churches generally but to any large-scale, high-intensity development on land zoned AG-1 — framing it, she said, strictly as a land-use issue.
Nine residents spoke during public comment at the meeting, most of them addressing the church proposal.
Why the corridor is sensitive
The church's parcels sit along Arnold Mill Road, a two-lane state highway zoned AG-1 with a one-acre minimum lot size and no municipal sewer access. The Milton City Council adopted the Arnold Mill Small Area Plan in May 2025 specifically to preserve the corridor's rural character.
Under the city's zoning code, churches aren't permitted by right on AG-1 land — any such proposal would need a use permit, which triggers public review before both the Planning Commission and City Council.
Moen first raised the issue publicly at the Aug. 3 council meeting, telling council then: "Let us be completely unambiguous about our zoning laws — churches are not permitted by right on AG-1 land."
A land use map in progress
Milton is currently rewriting its land use map as part of the city's 2026 comprehensive plan update — the benchmark any future rezoning argument for the site would be measured against. The redlined draft is publicly available at miltonga.gov/2026CompPlanUpdate.
Moen also told council that a brokerage agent representing the church first contacted the city on July 24, 2025, and that the church itself has never reached out to the city directly.
The Roundabout reported that it contacted Restoration Church for comment on Aug. 10 and had received no response as of its Aug. 18 publication.
What's next
No church-related item currently appears on the agenda for the Milton Planning Commission's next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Until the church files a rezoning or use permit application, the city isn't required to hold a formal public hearing on the project.
