Praises be to the Planning Commission

The clouds seem to be parting, and the light is near.

Newport Beach’s Planning Commission seems to have injected some

needed oversight to what has been incessant debate between St.

Andrew’s Church officials and their neighbors over the church’s

proposed expansion.

Some praise is due to the commission for taking a stronger line on

bringing the bickering parties together. Commission members’ newfound

role was illustrated Thursday, when they sat down with

representatives for the church and the neighborhood at the City

Council chambers. During the commission meeting, commissioners tried

to get the two sides to agree on rules the church would have to abide

by if its project was ultimately approved by the City Council.

For about two years, the two sides have met to try to agree on the

venerable church’s proposed growth, anchored by a new youth and

family center. But that debate has been marked by continual noise and

traffic concerns voiced by residents surrounding the church’s

property at 600 St. Andrews Road. At the same time, church leaders

have remained convinced that the proposed 22,000-square-foot

expansion, which has been scaled down about 40% from its original

scope, is good for the community and the church’s ministry. The

debate has become so fierce at times that on these pages, one local

resident once referred to the church as a guest in the neighborhood.

Others have wondered if the church has outgrown the neighborhood.

The sticking points again came to the surface Thursday. This time,

they included arguments about maximum occupancy and parking. The

church wanted a maximum of 1,900 spaces on Sundays, and its

representative wondered why the commission was leaning toward

limiting it to 1,500 by reducing a three-to-one person-to-

parking-space ratio to 2.5 people per space.

The meeting Thursday did not nail down an agreement on the

operating requirements. But it got the ball rolling. We now know, as

was reported today in the Pilot, that four commissioners are leaning

toward recommending to the City Council that the 22,000 square-foot

project be approved, a decision that could come at the commission’s

Dec. 9 meeting.

Now, church officials must agree among themselves and with nearby

Newport Harbor High School -- the property on which parking would be

shared -- as to what kind of parking configuration will be worked

out. A new ratio could be a part of that, bringing down the occupancy

cap.

Something’s got to give here. And there’s hope that something

will, because the difference now is that the commission -- after

months of sitting on the sidelines hoping for compromise without its

meddling -- seems engaged in the search for a resolution.

It’s not that either isn’t negotiating in good faith. The fact

that they are talking is a good thing. But on certain points, the

sides seem entrenched -- a stubbornness that perhaps only the

commission can unravel.