The proposal will include a 3900sq m main church building, including an auditorium, chapel, classrooms, offices, kitchen, multipurpose gym and child care facility.
Nearly 300 car parks are planned and a separate three-bedroom caretaker's house is also to be built on the site, which is bounded by the southern motorway to the north, and Main South Rd to the east and south.
The Dunedin City Council notified the resource consent for the project on Saturday.
Church senior leader Bruce Elder said the project, which would cost "more than a million", had been more than 12 years in the making, since the congregation sold its church in Hanover St due to a lack of space.
"We're very excited as it has been a long-term journey.
"It's a large project," Mr Elder said.
The congregation had been temporarily located at the College of Education auditorium while the church had been looking for new premises.
Six or seven sites in North Dunedin had been considered but none had worked out, until the church looked further afield, he said.
"An amazing set of coincidences led us to buy this land. It's a great site, with incredible visibility."
The concept behind the proposal was to build a facility that would serve not only its 500-plus congregation, but also the community and future generations, Mr Elder said.
"We want to serve our community more effectively and seven days a week. You can't do that hiring a facility."
It would be built "step by step", as resources allowed, so as not to "lumber" the church or future generations with a big debt, he said.
The child care facility would be used as a creche by parents on a Sunday, but during the week would be run by a separate organisation and open for use by families outside the church.
An evening service would be continued in North Dunedin to cater for the large student population among the congregation, he said.
The public could make submissions on the proposal until March 30.
