Commission set to mediate for St. Andrew’s officials, neighbors

Deirdre Newman

While good fences make good neighbors, good operating requirements

for large facilities near homes make even better ones, according to

planning commissioners.

The Planning Commission tonight will try to bring St. Andrew’s

Church officials and neighbors who oppose the church’s expansion to

agreement on the rules the church will have to adhere to if its plans

are approved.

The church is seeking to grow by about 22,000 square feet -- down

some 40% from church leaders’ original proposal -- centered around

the addition of a youth and family center. This expansion requires a

general-plan amendment.

Both sides presented their versions of the rules the church should

have to operate under to the city on Nov. 4. While there is some

agreement, a number of outstanding issues remain, such as maximum

occupancy and hours of operation. Because the two sides have dug in

their heels on the unresolved conditions, the commission will resort

to a rarely used mediation tactic, chairman Larry Tucker said.

“We’re going to do something that’s highly unusual in our forum

and invite representatives from each side to sit at the conference

table and go through each one of [the conditions], since it does not

seem to be getting resolved,” Tucker said. “We’ll give them a

microphone, and we’ll go through each one and hear what they have to

say, and then the commission will basically come to a conclusion on

each condition on what we think it ought to say.”

After the operating conditions are hashed out to the satisfaction

of the commissioners, staff members will record them officially, so

they are ready for the Dec. 9 commission meeting. That’s when a vote

is finally expected on the oft-postponed expansion project.

The church has had almost two years of discussions with neighbors

and the commission on its desire to grow. It has reduced its plans

twice to get to this point. Some opponents feel even the revised

expansion is still too much, fearing that growth will lead to more

traffic congestion and too much noise.

Both sides say they are looking forward to the commission’s effort

tonight to break the stalemate on the remaining conditions.

“We have worked together [with the neighbors] and come to some

resolution on a number of the items,” church spokeswoman Jill Kanzler

said. “But as you would guess, there are a couple of items that are

not yet resolved, and those are the most difficult, like occupancy

and hours of operation. And we look forward to the Planning

Commission hearing to create a forum to work those out.”

Don Krotee, president of the Newport Heights Improvement Assn.,

said while he’s glad the commission is giving both sides a fair shake

on the operating conditions, he is apprehensive that the church’s

latest expansion plans will inevitably be approved. Krotee is one of

the leaders of a group of Cliffhaven and Newport Heights neighbors

that oppose the expansion. This group has come up with an alternative

plan that includes the coveted youth and family center, eliminates

the church’s proposed parking garage and would require only an extra

2,800 square feet.

“The greatest goal [tonight] is to have the staff and the

commission and all the people in the audience understand there’s a

way of achieving a youth center for this church that can be

accomplished in 2,800 square feet without a parking garage and with

the nearly unanimous consent of two neighborhoods -- something the

church has been trying to do for two years,” Krotee said.

In addition to resolving the operating conditions, some of the

other issues Tucker wants the commission to settle are the

appropriate square footage of the church’s expansion and how many

parking spaces the church will have to provide both on-site and off.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (714)

966-4623 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.