Limited Permit May Resolve Church Dispute

An expansion plan that appears to resolve eight years of disagreement between the Neighborhood Church and its neighbors has won approval from the Palos Verdes Estates Planning Commission.

The panel this week recommended that the City Council give the Malaga Cove-area church a permit to build a new social hall by replacing a former garage and servants quarters and adding 1,775 square feet of new space. The church building was once an ornate private villa.

Church officials and the Malaga Cove Homeowners Assn. appeared jointly before the commission after signing an agreement permitting the social hall but limiting some church functions that caused increased traffic and noise--particularly the large number of weddings that had prompted critics to label the bluff-top ocean view church a “wedding chapel.”

Residents near the church launched a vigorous fight in 1981 against the church’s original proposal for a free-standing, 4,150-square-foot social hall. The city turned it down in April, 1987, and the church and the neighbors began working on a new proposal more than a year ago.

The agreement, which will be a part of the city permit for church expansion, limits the number of weddings to 114 a year, prohibits Sunday weddings, and allows no more than 18 wedding receptions annually. Those events may not include a sit-down dinner or live music. Limits also will be placed on the number of social events not directly related to church activities.

Critics contended that the church has had more than 285 weddings a year, but the church said the number never exceeded 190.