17-06-2025
Feud brewing after Uniontown church closes entry to shopping plaza from private driveway
A feud is brewing between a church and a business plaza in Uniontown after the church closed entry to the plaza from its private driveway.
After two years of being a good neighbor, the Faith Assembly Church has had enough. They built a wall and installed a gate on Sunday to stop customers from what they call free use of a small section of its private driveway.
In just a short time, KDKA-TV's camera captured driver after driver after driver, to their surprise, forced to turn around after they were denied access into the Beesontown Shoppes.
"Three or four cars of us had to pull up and turn back around and kinda let each other do that, then go back out and find a new way back in which was ... yeah," said driver Cody Thompson.
For years, customers have used the entrance on Wayland Smith Drive to get into the plaza, but when Faith Assembly Church moved into the former Radisson Hotel two years ago, things changed.
Now drivers are forced to use the secondary entrance, which can only be accessed on the west side of Main Street.
(Photo: KDKA)
"That is just so tight trying to turn there," said driver Lisa Dinunno.
"You have to make it more convenient. You have to make it easy access in and out," Dinunno said.
KDKA-TV talked to a Cisco driver who was trying to make a delivery to Jersey Mike's, but the 18-wheeler couldn't make the turn at the alternate entrance, which is clearly marked "no trucks."
"My truck is way too big for me to go up from the other side," he said.
In a statement on the church's website, the board says in part: "As owners of the property, we felt it necessary to firmly establish control of the driveway, since it requires our maintenance and ultimately includes our liability. For these reasons, we are closing the illegal access into the plaza property from our private driveway until a legal agreement is in place."
Customers say it's too much of an inconvenience now to access the plaza, so in turn, they say they'll take their businesses elsewhere.
KDKA-TV talked with an attorney for the church who says he believes they'll be able to rectify the situation "very soon."
