Neighbors air concerns about day-care center

Greg Risling

EAST SIDE -- Only a handful of neighbors showed up at a meeting Monday

night held to resolve lingering issues with an East Side church and its

accompanying day-care center.Those who did show up did voice their

complaints and offer suggestions for problems around the Lighthouse

Coastal Community Church and the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning

Center.

Neighbors were initially upset with the construction of a wall around the

day-care center. The wall was built four months after an incident where a

39-year-old Santa Ana man drove his car onto the playground. Two children

died and several others were injured.

Following the tragedy, the city granted the church an encroachment permit

with special conditions, one of which included hosting community

meetings.

The latest concern by neighbors was the amount of cars congregating

outside the day-care center. Neighbors said parents and their children

aren’t using the crosswalk, making it dangerous for motorists turning

onto Magnolia Avenue from Santa Ana Avenue who might not see them.

“We don’t want any more tragedies in our neighborhood,” said resident

Patricia Duvall. “It’s a very frightening effect to hit a child.”

Parents are supposed to use a church parking lot to drop off their kids.

Yet some parents, neighbors contend, double park and let their children

run across the street.

Center operator Sheryl Hawkinson said she has told parents numerous times

to use the crosswalk. She said there is a parents’ handbook that

discusses pedestrian safety.

Other issues neighbors brought up included signs, trash collection and

curb designation. Rande Hawkinson, who owns the center with his wife,

Sheryl, said they have tried to accommodate neighbors’ needs.

He said he doesn’t know how much is enough.

“We have done everything we can to comply,” he said. “It seems everything

we do is met with some level of resistance. We want to be a good

neighbor.”

For some residents, that may not be enough. Howard Denghausen said he

will ask the city’s Planning Commission to issue a new use permit for the

day-care center. There has been some debate whether a permit issued by

the city in the 1960s for the day-care center site is still valid.

“What the Planning Commission needs to do is issue a new conditional-use

permit, so there can be some force behind it,” he said. “Then we can have

the police write tickets if people [jaywalking] don’t comply.”