Trinity appeals permit delay

Deirdre Newman

Trinity Christian Center does not have the patience of Job.

Nine months is too long to wait for the city’s permission to

broadcast outside, say officials for the world’s largest TV ministry,

the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

So on Monday, center officials appealed the Planning Commission’s

postponement of any decision on outdoor broadcasting for nine months.

Last week, the commission unanimously continued the ban it imposed

in February on the international ministry’s outdoor broadcasts until

it sees the center try to alleviate nuisances it has created for its

neighbors.

Trinity officials say the commission’s delay “imposes a

substantial undue burden on [the network’s] ability to conduct its

religious services in a manner it chooses without a valid,

justifiable or legally viable reason,” according to the appeal filed

by John Casoria, who represents the center.

The appeal also suggests that neighbors have an agenda that “has

nothing to do with quality of life issues.”

Neighbors have complained about problems with traffic, noise and

outdoor lighting since the center moved to Costa Mesa in 1996.

“I don’t think they should be outside before they get their act

together with the original permit, and [the commission] put a lot of

conditions on that,” neighbor Lars Sivring said. “They violated the

first permit for years. I think it’s completely right to prove first

that they can live within those conditions before [the city] gives

them anything more.”

Casoria did not return calls for comment.

The center raised the ire of neighbors almost as soon as it moved

to Costa Mesa, according to public testimony at various meetings.

Neighbors began complaining to Trinity, and then city officials,

about traffic, noise and lights from outdoor broadcasting and the

center’s One Million Lights display during the Christmas season.

In 1999, the city told Trinity that it needed another permit to

conduct outdoor broadcasting on a frequent basis. The center refused,

claiming that because it is a church, it did not have to comply. It

eventually acquiesced and applied for the permit late last year.

Although no public hearing was required for the permit to

broadcast outside on a regular basis, it came before the Planning

Commission because of the controversy associated with the center’s

original operating permit.

On Feb. 24, instead of granting the outdoor permit, the commission

shut down the center’s outdoor TV taping activities to give it more

time to review the center’s original permit.

In March, the commission required the center to create a plan to

document how it will handle issues like traffic, landscaping and

equipment and placed certain restrictions on it. The center was given

60 days to create the plan, and city staff will monitor its

effectiveness after six and nine months, when the commission will

reconsider the outdoor broadcasting permit.

The appeal asserts that the center has already started putting

into practice “all of the conditions in a good faith effort to show

its cooperation.”

But Sivring accused the center of already violating some of these

restrictions. He has lodged three complaints about the center

operating machinery in the evenings, he said.

The City Council will consider the appeal on April 21.