All’s quiet on the St. Andrew’s front

Alicia Robinson

Not much noise has been heard lately about the proposed expansion of

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, and things are likely to stay quiet

on that front for some time. But silence doesn’t signal inaction.

The clock is ticking for neighbors and church officials, but also

for Planning Commission Chairman Larry Tucker.

Though his official role in the church-expansion decision is over,

Tucker has taken on the job of mediating between the two sides.

“We’re just beginning the process,” Tucker said. “It’s a longshot,

but hopefully we’ll be able to come up with something everybody will

be able to tolerate.”

Church officials want to add nearly 22,000 square feet to their

facilities as well as more parking. Neighbors in the Cliff Haven and

Newport Heights have raised continuous objections about the size of

the expansion, claiming it’s too big and will exacerbate traffic and

parking problems that already exist.

The Newport Beach Planning Commission approved the project with a

laundry list of conditions, and the City Council will soon set a

public hearing and debate giving final approval to build, possibly at

an Aug. 2 meeting.

The church is working on a revised plan, and neighbors are

creating their own alternative that they’ll pitch to the church. But

don’t expect to see those plans -- at least not right away.

“Once the process starts, we’re going to kind of go quiet so we

can try to work it out,” Tucker said. “I really don’t want the sides

battling publicly with each other while we’re trying to work this

out.”

But keeping the church and neighbors from public battles hasn’t

worked well so far.

Throughout a series of contentious hearings at the Planning

Commission, neighbors have distributed fliers touting their side of

the issue, and the church hasn’t been happy about it.

Most recently, neighbors wanted the church to withdraw the request

for a hearing from the City Council agenda, and in exchange the

church wanted neighbors not to talk to the press about the expansion,

said Don Krotee, a spokesman for neighbors in Cliff Haven and Newport

Heights.

When the church didn’t pull its hearing request, neighbors were

furious, Krotee said.

Jill Kanzler, St. Andrew’s spokeswoman, said she wasn’t aware that

neighbors had asked for the request to be removed.

Neighbors still want to see a smaller project, and the church is

working on revisions, but has not specified how the proposal might

change.

“We really agreed that we would like to be involved in something

where everybody ends up happy,” Kanzler said.

“We have had our architects take a lot of time and effort, and

there has been a lot of discussion about possible revisions.”

But some people define compromise as a solution that makes nobody

completely happy, and that may hold true with St. Andrew’s.

“The only way that I can see that we’re going to get there is if

the parties are going to have to accept things that aren’t their

preference,” Tucker said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.