Parking lot can serve as play area for now

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Lighthouse Coastal Community Church is not opening a new

preschool, at least for now.

The City Council, supporting a previous Planning Commission decision,

agreed Monday to allow Kline School to use part of the church’s parking

lot as a play area on the condition that the church doesn’t open a

preschool at this time.

“I believe the church has sort of outgrown its space and become too

intensive,” Mayor Libby Cowan said. “I also found it sad that the church

and the neighbors could not come to an agreement. . . . The church has

the right to be there, and the residents also have the right to be there

and the right to quiet time to enjoy their own properties.”

The previous preschool and day-care center, Southcoast Early Childhood

Center, closed in September, more than a year after Steven Allen Abrams

drove his 1967 Cadillac into its crowded playground, killing two children

and injuring several others. That occurred May 3, 1999.

The church, which opened before the city was incorporated in 1953, can

decide to use its previous permits to open a preschool if it stops

allowing Kline School to use its parking lot.

Tom Bazacas, senior pastor at the church, said kids are losing out

without a preschool and that the church is looking for ways to challenge

the council’s decision.

“The preschool is to take care of kids, to help kids grow,” he said.

“I don’t think the noise is severe. It’s difficult to live by a church,

just like it’s difficult to live by a park or a school or an airport, and

I understand that. But that’s just a part of where you live. I think no

matter what we do, people will always have something to complain about.”

The church has reconfigured its pickup and drop-off zone to keep the

traffic off the street, has planted fast-growing shrubs to reduce the

noise and has made property improvements including resurfacing and

re-striping its parking lot and upgrading its buildings, church

representatives said.

Before the City Council’s decision Monday, about a half dozen Magnolia

Street residents spoke against the preschool.

“The church is short on space, and that’s why the neighborhood is

suffering,” said Howard Denghausen, one of the residents. “There are

noise and traffic concerns. . . . There is just too much crammed onto

this site.”

Susan Kline, founder and director of Kline School at 320 E. 18th St.,

said if the church does not let her use the parking lot, it will put her

out of business.

“I’m depending on the good faith of the church, but they have to do

what’s in their best interest, too, and I understand that,” she said.

“They’ve done a lot to try to answer the complaints of the neighbors, and

it just never seems to be enough. One thing that troubles me is the

neighbors really wanted the buildings to be repaired. The church has done

[a lot of work], and it doesn’t have the opportunity to build revenue to

keep those buildings intact, attractive and maintained. To me, having a

preschool with a short day of three hours is a not very invasive way to

make some revenue.”

Councilman Gary Monahan was the only council member who supported the

church and voted against upholding the Planning Commission’s decision.

“People park in front of my house on Sundays, and I don’t yell at

them,” he said. “I go to church on Sundays, and I park in front of

people’s houses. That’s what happens when you live near a church, folks.

My kids scream in my backyard, and my neighbors have kids who scream in

their backyards, and I think it is the most beautiful sound in the world.

I’m sorry if some of you can’t see that.”