Council Asked to OK Zoning Changes : Churches Seek Home Amid Anaheim Industry

Every Sunday morning, members of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship arrive at Canyon High School in Anaheim Hills with three large vans filled with chairs, sound equipment and storybooks.

Within 45 minutes, they convert the cafeteria into a place of worship and ready some of the school classrooms for Sunday classes. Having had considerable practice in the past 1 1/2 years, church members have the ritual down to a science: They sometimes complete the metamorphosis from high school to church in as little as 30 minutes.

A permanent home would be preferable, Pastor Bob Fulton said, but until the young church can afford one, it wants to establish a temporary home in an unlikely spot: Anaheim’s Canyon Industrial Area.

At least one other church--the Living Faith Church--also has asked the City of Anaheim for permission to set up a temporary home in the industrial area, and Fulton says about five others want to follow suit.

Vote Next Tuesday

On Tuesday, the City Council considered the churches’ proposal to allow them in an area that now is home to the likes of Rockwell International Corp. and Hughes Aircraft Co. Next Tuesday, it is scheduled to hear additional public testimony and to take a final vote on the appropriate changes in zoning laws in the area north of the Riverside Freeway.

The churches are seeking temporary homes in industrial sites for various reasons.

Fulton told the council that the school that has housed the church is pressuring it to find a new location. Frank Lowry Jr., an attorney representing the church, said that there are some vacancies in the industrial park and that industrial property is cheaper to lease than commercial property.

And the location is ripe for churches looking for permanent homes where they can expand their congregations, Fulton said, pointing to the nearby growing, affluent Anaheim Hills.

By setting up a temporary home in the industrial area, the churches can take a few years to look for permanent homes, find the financial backing to purchase land and, in the meantime, tap into Anaheim Hills for new members, Fulton said.

“It’s very difficult for churches to get established because of the price of properties out there,” Fulton said.

A 2-Year Stay

Art Schaffer, representing the Living Faith Church, told the council that his 100-member congregation would like to move into the industrial area for about two years.

Fulton said his church--which has about 525 members and an office in Yorba Linda--would need about five years in the industrial area before moving into a permanent church site.

City Assistant Zoning Director Annika M. Santalahti and Community Development and Planning Director Norman J. Priest recommended against the churches’ request. The two officials suggested that the council deny a Planning Commission recommendation July 7 to permit churches in the area, subject to approval of a conditional use permit.

They said the proposal could set a precedent and other non-industrial users may expect similar considerations.

“Also, council will recall that churches are conditionally permitted in all of Anaheim’s industrial areas except the Canyon Industrial Area,” Santalahti wrote in a report to the council. The word “except” was underlined.

Lowry, the attorney who represents Vineyard Christian Fellowship, said his client and other churches are asking to be allowed in the area “only on a temporary basis. A church doesn’t belong in an industrial area, it belongs in a residential area. . . . For a young, beginning church, it just needs time to develop.”

“You’re so temporary in a school--you’re like a turtle,” Fulton said. “Everything we own is on our backs.”