Commission rejects church tent request

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- The Planning Commission on Monday narrowly voted down a

local church’s request to build a temporary house of worship on Newport

Boulevard that would host services for three to five years until a

permanent sanctuary on the site is complete.

Commissioners disagreed with the planning staff’s recommendation and

denied by a 3-2 vote a request from Calvary Church of Newport Mesa to

build a 36-foot-high tent. Planning Commissioners Walter Davenport and

Bill Perkins dissented.

“It is always terribly difficult when a church comes before us,”

Planning Commissioner Eleanor Egan said. “On the one hand, it’s a church,

and when you say no to a church, you say no to the entire congregation,

which is very hard to do.”

On the other hand is the community, she said.

“I just can’t see how it can be good for the people of Costa Mesa to

have a tent structure on Newport Boulevard,” Egan said.

The commission majority said the temporary structure was not

compatible with its surroundings and would set a precedent for other

churches or organizations that say they have outgrown their current digs.

“Our church and church leaders were very surprised that the commission

did not support the Planning Department’s decision that undeniably would

have enhanced not only Newport Boulevard but the city of Costa Mesa,”

pastor Tim Celek said.

Calvary Church Newport Mesa has embarked on a multimillion-dollar

project, which, when finished, will double the size of its existing

Orange Avenue campus and include a new sanctuary, educational buildings,

a four-level parking structure and a multipurpose room.

Construction on the first phase of the plan is almost complete but a

lack of funding will stall the sanctuary for a few years, said Dan

Steward, who is overseeing the project.

Celek said holding services in the temporary structure would allow the

church to accommodate its growing congregation, while monitoring the real

estate market to find the right time to sell its Orange Avenue property.

The money from the sale would fund the new sanctuary.

Egan said she would consider allowing a tent during the actual

construction of the sanctuary but doesn’t think it is the commission’s

place to approve the structure so the church could play the real estate

market.

Planning Commissioner Katrina Foley agreed, saying the church needs to

choose between its desire to house additional worshipers and getting the

most money for its site.

“The church has control of all the variables,” Foley said. “It is

nothing the city has done.”

Celek argued that a citywide moratorium did affect the project, and

church officials were trying to make the best use of its funds while

solving the parking and overcrowding problems at its existing location.

Church officials had originally planned to build the project in one

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

Celek 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.

Davenport said the commission had a responsibility to consider the

moratorium in its decision, as it did affect the timing and funding of

the project.

Perkins said the denial of a tent would hinder the church’s growth and

exacerbate the parking problems in the residential area surrounding the

Orange Avenue sanctuary.

“In my opinion, I think we are making a mistake,” Perkins said.

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

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