Church, residents appear ‘far apart’

Alicia Robinson

Hopes of an amicable resolution to the dispute over St. Andrew’s

Presbyterian Church’s proposed expansion have fizzled, less than a

month after church officials and neighbors tried again to find a

compromise.

The church wants to add 21,700 square feet to its facilities,

including parking and a youth and family center.

Residents in the adjacent Cliff Haven and Newport Heights

neighborhoods have opposed the expansion, which they believe is too

large and will create more traffic and noise.

The Newport Beach City Council will take up the proposal in

August. City Planning Commission Chairman Larry Tucker had been

acting as mediator for the two sides, but last week he called it

quits.

“They were just too far apart to bridge the gap,” Tucker said.

Both the church and its neighbors said they wanted a compromise

but expected to dislike any proposal they could agree on.

During mediation, the church offered to whittle its proposal down

to 19,000 square feet and to reduce the number of buildings by making

the youth and family center taller and adding a basement, St.

Andrew’s building committee chairman Ken Williams said.

Neighbors suggested a much smaller 6,000-square-foot plan that

simply shrank the different program spaces the church originally

wanted, said Don Krotee, a spokesman for neighbors who oppose the

expansion.

The Planning Commission in November approved the

21,700-square-foot plan with a list of more than 20 conditions,

including restrictions on the church’s hours of operation and changes

to traffic circulation at the facility.

Commission members and church officials thought those conditions

would help solve existing problems and also mitigate the effects of

expansion, Tucker said, but neighbors disagreed.

“It really came down to a matter of opinion as to the

effectiveness of what the Planning Commission has suggested,” he

said.

The church’s proposal is one of the longer-running planning issues

in the city’s recent history. St. Andrew’s officials pitched the

proposal for an expansion of nearly 36,000 square feet in December

2002.

Only two of the seven City Council members on the dais were there

when the church’s proposal first came before them in 2003 -- current

Mayor John Heffernan and then Mayor Tod Ridgeway.

It’s not clear how this council will lean on the St. Andrew’s

expansion, but council members will have to pick a side in August.

They will open a hearing on the plan Aug. 9, but the bulk of the

testimony and discussion will take place at a special meeting Aug.

11.

Neighbors and church officials are gearing up for the council

hearing and seem ready to bring the issue to a close.

“If we can plainly state and stick with the message ‘Save our

neighborhoods,’ I think the council could in fact hear that and could

deny” the expansion request, Krotee said.

Williams said the church would still be open to discussions, but

neighbors have proven unwilling to accept anything big enough to be

feasible for the church. But even council approval of the expansion

won’t necessarily mean immediate progress.

Williams said he anticipates a lawsuit challenging an

environmental report on the project, and he’s heard talk about a

possible referendum of the council’s decision.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

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

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.