HANOVER — Town officials appear likely to reverse a December decision preventing Christ Redeemer Church from building a new church on Greensboro Road, saying the 21,000-square-foot facility might be acceptable under certain conditions.

However, it’s unclear what terms the Zoning Board might propose when it meets on Thursday. The board last week discussed potentially limiting the church’s occupancy or curtailing its hours of operation but didn’t formally settle on either.

“As I have heard the clear testimony of everybody who testified, some church would be acceptable in this location,” Zoning Board member Jeremy Eggleton said in the meeting last Thursday, according to an audio recording of the session. “And so the question is, ‘Where on the spectrum does the proper church fall?’ ”

The board voted, 3-2, last year in favor of killing plans to construct a church capable of serving 400 Christ Redeemer congregants at the Greensboro Road site, a residential neighborhood off Route 120 south of downtown Hanover, citing concerns the building would be too large and have “an adverse impact on the character of the area.”

“Visit the Etna and Hanover Center churches, note their size, and then picture a structure two-and-a-half to three times as large,” the Zoning Board wrote in its initial decision on Dec. 6 denying a special exception for the project.

Christ Redeemer officials challenged that decision in January, asking for a rehearing and asserting that Hanover’s zoning ordinance discriminates against religious institutions. The ordinance is unconstitutional because it requires churches to obtain a special exception in areas of town where other buildings serving large numbers of the public don’t require one, lawyers representing Christ Redeemer Church wrote in their appeal to the town.

The Zoning Board granted the church’s rehearing request, and members have met twice this month to determine its fate. During last week’s meeting, a majority of board members expressed reservations about the church’s scope and size, but that signaled their intention to support the building in some form.

Board member Bernie Waugh, a municipal attorney who voted in the church’s favor last year, said the size of the building isn’t itself enough to determine that it adversely affects the neighborhood.

“The fact that the building is not necessarily in scale with other buildings in the neighborhood is not necessarily an adverse impact,” he said in the meeting. “There’s plenty of places in the United States where there are large buildings and there are small buildings, and those are not necessarily bad places to live.”

Waugh went on to say that the board hasn’t so far found an adverse impact the church could pose that couldn’t be addressed with a condition, either calling for additional screening or parking enforcement.

Board Chairwoman Carolyn Radish said the town’s zoning ordinance does direct churches to residential communities, such as Greensboro Road.

“We have to work with the zoning ordinance that we have, and so, toward that, I guess I agree with the consensus of approve (the project) with conditions,” she said.

Any decision in favor of the church is likely to upset neighbors, who have opposed the church project because of its size and ability to increase traffic.

“I can’t imagine what conditions they would put on a project that size that is going to actually mitigate the negative impact on the character of the neighborhood that they found it was going to produce in their first hearing,” Jeff Acker, who lives across the street from the proposed site, said on Tuesday. “I think to go back on that (December) decision calls into question the whole nature of zoning and what we as townspeople and neighbors expect our Zoning Board is going to protect us from.”

Board members on Thursday are expected to review a draft decision that would allow the church project to move forward. They’ll then make changes and potentially make a formal decision on the proposal at another meeting, said Robert Houseman, Hanover’s director of planning, zoning and codes.

“I can say that there was a majority of the board that felt, with certain conditions, the use could be approved,” he said. “They need to understand what those conditions are and how it would impact the project.”

The Zoning Board will continue to discuss the Christ Redeemer Church case at 7 p.m. on Thursday in Town Hall.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.