Council allows church growth

A Roman Catholic church and school next door to Corona del Mar High School can build a new sanctuary and gym and add classrooms, despite some objections from neighbors about traffic.

The Newport Beach City Council voted, 6-0, Tuesday to allow the expansion at Our Lady Queen of Angels church and school on Mar Vista Drive. Councilman Tod Ridgeway recused himself because he owns an adjacent property. The school serves kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

The church will add 10 classrooms and build a 9,450-square-foot gym, and will build a new 1,170-seat sanctuary. Some of the new facilities will be on St. Mark Presbyterian Church property because the Presbyterian church plans to move.

The nearby Villa Granada Homeowners’ Assn. had objected to the expansion, with a representative complaining that it would worsen existing traffic problems in the neighborhood.

A city staff report said the association asked the council to delay hearing the issue because its members said officials hadn’t adequately studied traffic issues, and the association also objected to the proposed height of Our Lady Queen of Angels’ new steeple. At 90 feet, the steeple would far exceed the 35-foot building height limit for the area.

Katherine Johansen representing the homeowners association told the council that approving the project could cause severe traffic problems in the future.

“I think that there’s no question that this church and the schools, both the private and the public schools, are going to be growing in the years to come,” she said. “We have problems without this expansion even moving forward right now.”

City officials said the traffic issues have been addressed by requiring the church to create plans for school pick-up and drop-off and for parking for church events. Church leaders also agreed to adjust the school day to stagger arrival times from those of neighboring Corona del Mar High School.

Council members asked church leaders to put in writing that they will no longer operate a preschool, and the city will study the possibility of removing street parking along Domingo Drive.

Church representatives pointed out that the new sanctuary will host fewer people than St. Mark and Our Lady combined do now, and more parking spaced will be built.