Council skirts church plan

Michael Miller and Alicia Robinson

The Newport Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to send an

expansion plan by St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church back to the

Planning Commission for reevaluation.

The 7-0 vote came after an abbreviated public hearing in which

council members asked residents not to comment on the merits of the

expansion. The purpose of the vote was to determine whether to return

the St. Andrew’s proposal to the commission, which approved the plan

with conditions last December, or to turn the matter over to the City

Council for a decision.

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church is seeking approval for a

22,000-square-foot expansion that would include a new youth and

family center and more parking. The city’s Planning Commission in

December agreed to the expansion but attached a list of 23

conditions.

Because parking problems have been a major source of complaints

from church neighbors, one of those conditions was a requirement that

the church sign a long-term agreement to share parking with adjacent

Newport Harbor High School. The church offered the school $3.5

million in parking improvements in exchange for a 30-year parking

agreement, but the Newport-Mesa Unified school board, at its meeting

on April 12, opted not to consider the parking proposal until the

overall expansion issue is resolved.

While the City Council opted to return the matter to the Planning

Commission, councilman John Heffernan said that he didn’t want the

matter to ricochet back and forth between the two boards.

“If they’re going to have public hearings to resolve [the church

expansion], it should be at the Planning Commission level,” Heffernan

said. “I’m just hopeful, if it goes back to the Planning Commission

before it comes to us, that they’ll strike a deal.”

The City Council ultimately must vote on the project, as the

Planning Commission only has the power to give recommendations.

Church officials want permission to build the parking structure they

originally planned if they can’t forge a parking agreement with the

school.

Some residents of the nearby Cliff Haven and Newport Heights have

vehemently opposed the church’s expansion because they think it is

too big and that it will worsen traffic and parking problems that

already exist. They hope the city will tell St. Andrew’s to reduce

the size of its plan.

Despite the proposal’s second chance with the commission, some

neighbors said they already considered the matter ended.

“The Planning Commission has already expressed itself quite well

on this matter,” said Richard England, a neighbor of St. Andrew’s, at

the meeting. “A 30-year lease was required to go forward.”