Advertising ‘Lord’s Business’ : Mission Viejo Church Gets County to Relax Height Limit to Raise Cross

A Mission Viejo church was granted permission Monday to build a cross taller than local height limits, even though county Planning Commission members questioned the need for such a tall “advertisement.”

“This is not a fast-food restaurant where people would spontaneously get hungry and stop,” Planning Commissioner Alvin M. Coen said. “It isn’t something you would need to see, and all of a sudden . . . you have a spiritual need that is met by the church.”

Architect Culver Heaton, who said he has designed more than 300 churches in California and never encountered a height restriction such as Orange County’s, responded that the cross is needed to attract people to the church.

“The church is also in business, the Lord’s business,” Heaton said. “And they should be as entitled to a symbol as you allow symbols that go on hamburger stands.”

Although neighborhood residents have been supportive of the cross, commissioners said their vote on the request of Shepherd of the Hills United Methodist Church was particularly tough because it required them to find a “special circumstance” to allow for deviating from the county’s building code.

The county zoning code for that section of Mission Viejo limits structures to 35 feet in height. Architectural features for areas other than for sleeping or eating can extend up to 45 feet.

The proposed cross would consist of two, 5-inch-wide steel tubes stretching 67 feet, 6 inches from the ground, Heaton said. It would sit atop a new 45-foot-high sanctuary, including a 14-foot spire. The cross would extend 22 feet, 6 inches above the height limit.

“I’m convinced there is no impact, or only a slight negative impact” on the community, Commissioner Thomas Moody said. “But our commission has always been very respectful of these findings we must make. And while I’m sympathetic with the situation, I’d like to hear more about what kind of special circumstances exist.”

County planning staff members, adhering closely to the building code, recommended that the cross be denied.

After some debate, commissioners voted unanimously for the church’s request.

“I think this is one of those items where the zoning code isn’t exactly as we would like it to be; we could go either way,” commission Chairman H.G. Osborne said. “My own personal opinion is to do a little stretching and permit the construction of the cross.”

Osborne said the cross could be justified because the church is built near a hill and is therefore at a disadvantage under the building code relative to adjacent hillside sites. A structure farther up the hill could be built within the county’s height limit and at an elevation far higher than would be allowed at the church.

That argument convinced others, including Coen, who said he had come to the meeting planning to vote against the cross.

Heaton said after the vote that he thought the commissioners were a bit embarrassed by their predicament. “Some of these people are lawyers, and they have to pay attention to the law,” he said. “But some of these things you have to do according to your heart.”

Before a change in the building code in 1980, a cross under a height of 70 feet would not have required a special variance. During Monday’s discussion, Commissioner C. Douglas Leavenworth suggested that the county consider changing the code again to allow taller crosses.

“If this were in Anaheim, where I live, I wouldn’t be able to make these findings, and yet I’m not sure why (it) shouldn’t be approved,” he said. “I believe the code should give us more latitude than it does.”