Youth arts group no longer seeking permit to move into business park
A youth performing arts and musical theater program has withdrawn its effort to move into a Costa Mesa business park, leaving the church that owns the space looking for another buyer and pondering possible legal action.
The Arts & Learning Conservatory, a Santa Ana-based educational nonprofit, has for months sought a permit from the city to set up shop at 3184 Airway Ave., near John Wayne Airport, and access the area’s shared parking.
City Council members were scheduled to review the proposal Tuesday, but the item was removed from their agenda shortly before the start of the meeting.
A revised agenda said the matter had been continued until Nov. 1, but an email from a conservatory representative sent to the city Tuesday afternoon said the organization was no longer pursuing the permit.
Messages left with the conservatory Tuesday and Wednesday were not returned.
The organization wanted to use the property’s Suite A for administrative purposes and after-school programs, as well as to host a summer day camp and up to six theatrical productions on weekends throughout the year.
Berean Community Church, which owns the suite, had agreed to sell the space to the conservatory and was looking to use the proceeds to help facilitate its planned relocation to Irvine. The church’s senior pastor, Peter Kim, said Tuesday that he’s disappointed about Arts & Learning withdrawing from the deal.
“Selling a church is not like selling a home — you don’t just have people coming in and checking it out,” Kim said. “We don’t know how long it’s going to take [to find another buyer]. As far as we’re concerned, we’re starting over.”
He said it’s possible that the church, which has between 450 and 500 parishioners, may pursue legal action against the city.
The Costa Mesa Planning Commission unanimously approved the conservatory’s permit application June 13, but that decision was appealed four days later by members of the Koll-Irvine Community Assn., which governs the area.
Lawyers representing the association have said the group owns and manages the shared parking area in the business park, so the city doesn’t have the right to allow the conservatory to use the parking without the association’s approval.
“The association has the authority to regulate the parking at the business park and they didn’t come to us first,” Koll-Irvine’s attorney Michael Leifer said Tuesday.
Koll-Irvine raised similar concerns about parking in a lawsuit filed in reaction to a council decision in March to allow the Ismailis, a branch of Shia Islam, to open a 6,000-square-foot center at 3184 Airway Ave. Suite J.
“The association has made a policy decision that they just can’t have everybody seeking to have a church or assembly use in the park,” Leifer said. “That’s just not what it was built for.”
Kim has previously said he thinks the Koll-Irvine’s issues with the conservatory aren’t particularly about his church selling its space to the youth group, but rather a reflection of “lingering resentment” over the council’s approval to let the Ismailis in.
Council members held off on deciding the association’s appeal of the conservatory approval in early August, saying city staff and attorneys needed more time to wade through the legal issues surrounding it.
Kim said he thinks the city wants to avoid ruling on the conservatory’s proposal to keep from possibly influencing the lawsuit over the Ismaili center.
“I want to know how they’re arguing for the 3184-J building while using the same logic to reject us,” he said, referring to the Ismaili facility. “They’re contradicting themselves.”
