Church Shifts Training Center Site : Crystal Cathedral to Buy Building in Orange for Facility

After months of intense neighborhood opposition, officials of the Crystal Cathedral said Wednesday that the church will drop plans to build a $20-million leadership training center on its Chapman Avenue property in Garden Grove.

Church plans for a cemetery on the site continue, however, despite criticism from residents living around the church who said they will keep fighting it.

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, the Rev. Herman Ridder told reporters that the church will purchase the Hour of Power building across the street in Orange for $5.5 million and modify the three-story structure for use as the leadership training center.

The Hour of Power organization, which televises a weekly program featuring the Rev. Robert Schuller, founder of the church, will arrange to lease an office building for its production facilities somewhere within a five-mile radius of the church, said Jim Coleman, president of the organization.

Ridder, president of the 10,000-member congregation, hailed the acquisition, saying it “made a dream a reality.” He said the church is buying the property to save money and to appease neighbors. “This leaves them a winner and us a winner.”

The announcement, made in the world famous glass-encased church, came as no surprise to Garden Grove city officials or neighbors who for months have fought the church’s expansion plans.

Jerry Blum, city planning division manager, said the church indicated last month when the City Council continued the matter that it might back down on construction of a new training center. But he said the city did not pressure the church. He said he advised church officials to go ahead with their full application because it was already in process.

Assistant City Manager Mike Fenderson said Garden Grove had not received official word that the church was withdrawing part of the application. But he said Wednesday’s announcement didn’t surprise him, considering the opposition to the project.

Mayor Jonathan Cannon predicted several weeks ago that the church would rework the project. He said, “They don’t want to shove anything down anyone’s throats.”

Not all the neighbors were satisfied, however.

Walter Conn, an Anzio Street resident, said, “I am dead set against the cemetery, period.” The 1.7-acre cemetery would be located directly behind his home of 26 years. “It has been one aggravation after another from the church,” he added.

Shirley Eskenazi of Greentree Avenue said: “They always go after two items and then back down to appease us. We are very pleased, but we won’t accept the cemetery either.”

The church wanted to build a six-story educational center on the southwest corner of its property at Dawn Avenue and a cemetery on a triangular parcel of land bordering Anzio Street.

But the church’s neighbors to the southwest on Dawn Avenue, Salerno Street and Anzio Street have been fighting the expansion that they said would cause a host of problems.

The neighbors’ primary concerns were increased parking and traffic problems, noise, decreased property values and the loss of open space. They also feared continued expansion into the tract where the church owns nine homes. And the homeowners don’t like the idea of a cemetery behind their houses.

After listening to the neighborhood complaints, the Planning Commission late last year recommended denial of the entire project, including the cemetery. In February, the City Council voted to delay action until a report was completed on the impact the cemetery would have on the neighborhood. The report being completed by two private consultants will cost the church $17,000, Blum said.

Blum said the city will impose conditions on the cemetery, if approved, such as a seven-foot height limitation on any structure.

But neighbors, who have been at war with Schuller since the church’s phenomenal growth began in the 1960s, have no intentions of calling a truce. They opposed his plans for a senior citizens’ housing project, later built elsewhere, and the 13-story Tower of Hope and Crystal Cathedral, both of which were built.

Eskenazi said, “I, as well as my neighbors, are compassionate people, and we, too, believe in seeing our dead rest in peace. But we would like to continue to enjoy our homes and neighborhood without a cemetery next to us.”

The cemetery will be voted on by the City Council when the impact report is completed toward the end of April, Blum said.