Church to Get Busier With New Hall, Neighbors Fear

The Neighborhood Church and some of its neighbors are locked in an unneighborly dispute over church activities in posh Malaga Cove.

Founded in 1924, the same year the city began as a residential development, the church was a small, struggling congregation until the early 1950s, when it moved into a former villa atop the bluff on Paseo del Mar and began growing. At that time, it was the only church in the city.

The Rev. Charles L. Heuser, senior pastor of the church, says candidly that his is a missionary church with an emphasis on outreach.

“We are an open church; we minister to all races, and we try to stay open to the people, to be a mission in this area,” he said.

For the church, this means a congregation of 850 from throughout the South Bay, two Sunday services that together attract more than 400, and several weddings each weekend.

New Social Hall

But for some nearby residents, it means traffic congestion, noise and the glare of headlights from night activities. Now, as the church tries to obtain city permits to build a new social hall, residents fear the problems will only get worse.

“We’ve already put up with a lot,” longtime resident Joseph Caponetto said.

“We do not oppose this church or its Sunday services,” said Dr. Benjamin Kuchar, a physician who lives directly across from the church entrance. “We enjoy the bells and the music, and we’re all Christians affiliated with churches. But we do object to the developing commercialism.”

As examples of “commercialism,” Kuchar and some of his neighbors point to the number of weddings the church conducts--there were 130 during a nine-month period last year--as well as exercise classes, Boy Scout activities and a weekly evening meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous that attracts more than 100 people.

“They bring people from all over the state and have become a wedding chapel,” Kuchar said. As for the Scouts and Alcoholics Anonymous, he said, they are worthy organizations but their activities are not religious and violate 1952 deed restrictions on the church property, which limit it to activities that “are essentially of a religious nature.”

‘Source of Irritation’

Heuser, who has been senior minister of the Neighborhood Church for 10 years, acknowledged that the church is “a source of irritation” to some of its neighbors. “I understand them,” he said. “They are concerned that we’re getting bigger, and they’re anticipating more cars.”

But Heuser asserts that all the activities are church-related: “We’ve said no to the Rotary Club and no to an antique car show. The church sponsors the Scout troop, and I am chaplain to the AA group.”

Heuser said the Neighborhood Church is “mission-centered” and thus is open to all “who want a spiritual wedding with a religious content.” He said the church limits weddings to three on Saturday and one on Sunday, and “all who are married here go through our counseling.”

The Palos Verdes Homes Assn., which polices deed restrictions in the city, has ruled that the church has not violated deed restrictions, said Patricia Gribbin, association manager. “We are aware of the AA and Scout uses, but they generally are construed as the church’s service to the community,” she said. “As for the weddings, you can’t say a wedding is not a religious service of the church.”

‘Good Neighbor’

Heuser said the church adapted its lighting because of complaints of glare and said it hires traffic control officers during weddings and large social functions to direct drivers onto church parking lots that have spaces for 157 cars. “We are a good neighbor,” he said.

City Councilwoman Barbara Culver said several different elements have created the controversy in Malaga Cove, which is formed by a graceful curve of the seacoast near the boundary between Palos Verdes Estates and the Hollywood Riviera section of Torrance.

She said traffic congestion in the area has worsened not only because activities have increased at the church but because of the popularity of the bluffs with surfers and activities at Malaga Cove School, which gained students this year.

Some residents of the cove, where large homes valued at $750,000 climb the slopes above the bluffs, say criticism of the church is misguided.

“I am amazed that adult citizens have lost their balance over this,” said Robert Miller, who walks by the church every day and has been a member for 18 years. He said the critics cite specific church activities but really “are paranoid about church activities, period.”

Prefer It Would Go Away

“They would prefer the church would just go away and leave them in their isolation,” he said.

Katharyne Jobson, who has been a church member for 38 years and can see it from her home on Via Media, said she hears more noise from her street than from the church.

Church critics say they would be content if it reduced the scope of its activities and served local people, which they contend was its original mission. “Most of the people who used this church used to live here,” said Virginia Geissel, a neighbor of the church since 1957. “Now they bring others in.”

The church complex originally was built as an isolated retreat by department store magnate J. J. Haggarty. Commanding a spectacular sea view, the estate was described in a 1928 article as a 20-room Southern Italian villa with a decidedly feudal atmosphere.

During the Depression, the Haggarty family fell on hard times and the estate had a succession of owners. There were stories about gambling, wild parties and a decor that included paintings of partially clad figures.

Bought for $65,000

By the time the property was sold to the church in 1950, it was unoccupied and in disrepair. The owners, who were eager to sell, had dropped the price from $300,000 to $150,000. When the church offered $65,000, it was accepted.

Although the feud with neighbors has been festering for years, it intensified early in 1981 when the residents learned of the plans for a fellowship hall. James R. Dunn, chairman of the church building committee, said the hall is needed so the church can expand its sanctuary into what is now the social area.

Kuchar and other church critics are convinced that the new social facility, because it is larger than the existing multipurpose room, will lead to an increase in events and people at the church. The environmental study pegs the building at 4,150 square feet, but the critics contend it will be larger.

The church strongly denies that it plans to step up its schedule of activities, insisting that it is simply replacing an inadequate social area that adjoins the sanctuary with a better one.

“We wish the neighborhood would understand that we will not increase activities; we will not bring in a lot more anything,” Heuser said. A city consultant’s draft environmental report, however, said the project would increase church traffic by 10% to 15%.

The California Coastal Commission, which regulates development near the ocean, approved the building on the condition that city and the church reach agreement on the scope of church activities. The church agreed to limit large weddings and receptions of 75 people or more to four a week and meetings and social functions to five a week. It also agreed not to use the new hall for any activity not now held in the church.

January Hearing Expected

The controversy continued, however, and in the spring of 1984 the city decided that a formal environmental impact study should be done. That study, which is nearing completion, is expected to go to the city’s Planning Commission in January and later to the City Council.

The critics claim wide support in the city, citing more than 400 signatures collected against construction of the hall. But church partisans say it is a case of a few people stirring up many with misleading information.

Critics also say it is unsafe to build on the bluff, but the draft environmental report, citing two geological studies done by the church, states that construction of the hall near the 65-foot high cliff would be safe.

Some residents remain skeptical. Said Mary Roderman: “How can this site be safe when 1,000 yards away there is a gazebo being held up by sandbags?”

Ruth Ann Hosken, president of the Malaga Cove Homeowners Assn., said the neighborhood cannot take a traffic increase, nor can the “fragile cliffs” support a building. City Councilwoman Ruth Gralow said bluff safety is her main concern.

Erosion Noted

At an Aug. 20 Planning Commission hearing on the draft report, Commissioner Joe Barnett said he was amazed at the erosion of the bluff and said bluff stabilization should be a condition of approval for the project.

Dunn said the church plans to spend $100,000 on a bluff drainage system to control erosion in connection with construction of the hall. The hall itself would cost about $400,000.

Mayor James Kinney said the council may have to impose more restrictions on church activities.

For his part, Heuser said the Neighborhood Church has no plans to shrink in the face of its critics: “We are a help to this community. That’s what we shoot at.”