Building blocks

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- The large slabs of concrete and steel beams being

erected on a vacant lot along Newport Boulevard are not only setting the

foundation for a building, but for the future growth of Calvary Church of

Newport Mesa.

The church is embarking on a multimillion-dollar project, which, when

finished, will double the size of the current campus and include a new

sanctuary, educational buildings, a four-level parking structure and a

multipurpose room.

After searching for about six years, the church bought 4 1/2 acres of

vacant land on Newport between Bay Street and Victoria Avenue two years

ago, Pastor Tim Celek said. When the project is completed, church

officials will move the ministry from the existing 2.2-acre property on

Orange Avenue to the new facility, said Dan Steward, who is overseeing

the project.

“We’ve long outgrown our old site, but we wanted to stay in the city

and there just isn’t a lot of land in the area that was able to meet our

needs,” Celek said.

On Newport, the church will be more visible, away from residential

units and more easily accessible to all Costa Mesa residents, Steward

said.

We’re “excited also because this puts us on the Westside, and we have

a heartfelt love for the Westside,” Steward said.

The entire cost of the project has not yet been determined as it is

being broken into two phases. The first phase, now under construction,

includes a 17,000-square-foot parking structure and multipurpose room and

will cost about $5 million, said Ian Stevenson, pastor of ministry

development at Calvary Church.

Church officials had originally planned to do the project in one step

but were stalled by a citywide moratorium on small-lot development,

Steward said. While the moratorium did not apply to the commercial zoning

for the lot on Newport, it made it nearly impossible to market the Orange

Avenue property -- located in a medium-density residential zone -- to

potential buyers.

City Planner Willa Bouwens-Killeen said small-lot development, where

builders subdivide a large lot to build two or three houses, has been the

most popular in Costa Mesa among developers. The fact that a moratorium

was put on such developments probably made the land on Orange Avenue

undesirable, Bouwens-Killeen said.

“Developers don’t want to buy land they can’t develop on,” Steward

said.

Steward said church officials decided to keep both campuses and scale

back on immediate plans for the new site to save money. Although the

moratorium has been lifted, Steward said the church will wait to see

where market rates settle and then put the property up for sale. Once the

Orange Avenue site is sold, officials will finalize and proceed with the

second phase, he said.

“We are waiting to see what God wants us to do there,” Stevenson said.

When the first phase is completed -- they hope by Easter -- the

congregation will hold weekend services in the new multipurpose room,

Celek said. At the new facility, seating capacity will be doubled, from

350 to 700. Parking will also be less of a problem, Celek said.

Calvary Church of Newport Mesa started in 1988 with Celek, his wife

and a core group of about 30 people, Celek said. In a little more than a

decade, the population has grown to more than 1,300.

“We’re moving because we are growing, and we are extremely excited

about the opportunity in front of us,” Celek said.

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .