Board OKs Escondido-Area Hall for Jehovah’s Witnesses; Appeal Vowed

An emotional audience of proponents and opponents packed the small hearing room Thursday as the county Planning and Environmental Review Board voted 2 to 1 to approve construction of a 500-seat sanctuary for Jehovah’s Witnesses at the southern edge of Escondido.

Residents of the rural area have fought the project for two years and announced after the decision that they will appeal the approval of a major-use permit for the assembly hall, despite concessions made by church officials on use of the property.

Under conditions of the permit, the 10-acre site is to be used only for religious purposes, and only on Sundays and two weeknights from 6:30 to 9:15 p.m.

Four Escondido-area Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations, which have outgrown their meeting hall on South Orange Avenue, have been trying to build a new Kingdom Hall at Bear Valley Parkway and Encino Drive.

The existing building holds people on a site with 35 parking spaces. The proposed new building will contain two sanctuaries, each able to accommodate 250 people, and will have a 189-space parking lot.

Ken Chernish, spokesman for the Jehovah Witness congregations, said the search for a new site began five years ago and the religious group had been trying to obtain county approval for its building since 1987. The Board of Supervisors denied the church group a permit last year because of the effect the new church would have on a neighborhood already burdened by traffic and congestion from another church nearby.

Residents opposing the Witnesses’ application maintained that the increased traffic would make a dangerous intersection at Encino and Bear Valley even worse.

Videotapes of the traffic passing the site were presented by both sides, each showing varying amounts of traffic from sparse to congested.

Chernish pledged to coordinate services at the new Jehovah’s Witnesses church with those of the Emmanuel Faith Community Church so that traffic from the two congregations does not peak at the same time.

However, Chernish protested when review board members set specific hours of use on the Kingdom Hall site.

“It has come down to the place that we will have a million-dollar building that we can use for only two hours, one day a week,” Chernish said.

Richard Empy, review board member and county plan implementation chief, said the restrictions are necessary because of the “profound impact to the residents’ quality of life” that the new congregation would have.

The intersection at Bear Valley Parkway and Encino Drive will be widened and improved by the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a condition for receiving approval of the major-use permit.

Residents said they will appeal the ruling to the county Planning Commission. The panel’s decision may be appealed to the Board of Supervisors.