Rural Furor in Orange County : Anger Greets Plans for Huge Church in Canyon

A plan to build a massive church complex east of Mission Viejo with more seating than the Crystal Cathedral and enough parking space to cover seven football fields has ignited the wrath of residents and environmentalists battling development in the hills and canyons of southern Orange County.

The Saddleback Valley Community Church, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Church, is planning to spend $55 million to build a permanent home on a 113-acre parcel bordering Cleveland National Forest. Its proposal calls for a 4,800-seat, seven-story sanctuary; two lighted softball fields, 84 rooms for Sunday school classes and offices, a day-care center and parking for 2,200 vehicles in lots that would include two multilevel structures.

“Can you believe it?” asked Sherry Meddick, a Silverado Canyon resident who has championed numerous efforts to preserve the county’s diminishing backcountry. “They want to build parking structures in a rural area. Most of us out here don’t even have garages. It’s crazy.”

Meddick’s anger at the ambitious proposal is echoed by scores of other residents and environmentalists who believe the size and scope of the project is inconsistent with the bucolic character of the area.

Even county planners have expressed concern that the project would be too urbanized for the area. The planners last week recommended approval of a much smaller church center--one with a 2,800-seat fellowship hall, no sanctuary or softball fields, and fewer than half the number of Sunday school rooms and offices church officials want to build. Further, planners recommended limiting on-site parking to 1,000 cars.

“As proposed, this church is not appropriate for a rural setting,” said Lynn Dosherry, chief planner for the advance planning unit of the county Environmental Management Agency. “What concerns us most is how much of the natural terrain would be altered. They are talking about completely reshaping the look of the land. . . .”

Meddick would agree.

“This is not an anti-church movement,” she said. “The issue is appropriateness. That area has been designated by the county as a rural transition zone. And, believe me, there is nothing rural about a 4,800-seat church.”

Officials of the church--which, with its more than 1,500 members, is one of the county’s fastest growing congregations--contend that their proposal has wrongly become a lightning rod for opposition in the larger controversy over development in the region.

Church elders contend that 80% the proposed church site, off Santiago Canyon Road north of Cook’s Corner, would remain undeveloped, being dotted with stands of historic oak trees and framed by pristine ridgelines. Moreover, except for the day-care center and the softball fields, officials said, most of the complex would not be in use other than during Sunday services.

Land Bought in 1987

“If you listen to some people, it sounds like thousands and thousands of cars will be going in and out our church every day,” said Glen Kruen, executive pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church. “That’s just not true. . . . A church on that site is far more compatible with the environment than houses” would be, he said.

The church bought the land from the William Lyon Co. for $3.5 million in late 1987, culminating a four-year search of southern Orange County for a place suitable for a permanent facility. Since it began in 1980, Kruen said, the church has led a nomadic existence, having leased 13 different facilities. Sunday

services are now held on the campus of Trabuco Hills High School.

Many believed the wanderings ended with the purchase of the Lyon parcel. Lyon, which is one of the nation’s largest home builders, already had tentative approval to build 78 homes on the property. As part of the deal, the church acquired the tract maps to build the homes should its sanctuary proposal be rejected. (It is more likely, however, that the church would instead sell the property and its development rights.)

The church complex is one of five specific project proposals county officials are considering together with a broader plan to set development guidelines for the 6,500-acre region known as the Foothill-Trabuco area. The county Planning Commission is expected to consider the Foothill-Trabuco Specific Plan as well as the five individual proposals next month, then turn its recommendations over to the Board of Supervisors.

The Board of Supervisors, in turn, will have public hearings and vote on the Specific Plan. Environmentalists and developers agree that whatever the county decides may set the course for growth in the county’s rural areas.

Support Among Congregation

Support for the project among the members of Saddleback Valley Community Church is intense. Earlier this month, more than 200 of them packed a county Planning Commission meeting on the subject. The support is, in part, rooted in the desire for a permanent home.

“Several thousand people who belong to that congregation need a place to worship,” said Brett Bray, a regular at the Sunday services at Trabuco Hills High, who also lives in the canyon.

“Sure, there is going to be more traffic in the area. But change is coming, whether it is from this church or some other project. And I’d rather have a church in my back yard than a shopping center or more housing tracts.”

Detractors are showing equal determination.

“There is nothing low-density or low-intensity about this project,” said Trabuco Canyon resident and activist Diana Glass at a recent Planning Commission hearing. “This is a big-time development that will alter forever the look and feel of this whole area.”

Traffic Warnings

Some residents warn that the project would dramatically increase the traffic on two-lane Santiago Canyon Road, which is already reaching capacity because of residential development in nearby Portola Hills.

To build the church, environmentalists contend, tons of earth will be moved and several oak-tree-covered knolls will be bulldozed to manufacture 80-foot-high slopes along Santiago Canyon Road to conceal the sanctuary and other church buildings from the view of passing motorists. Opponents also argue that building 78 homes on one-acre lots at the site would change the environment less than the church complex would.

“Putting homes out there would be much more reasonable,” said Meddick, who is president of the Rural Canyon Residents Assn. “A church can keep growing and growing, adding an unlimited number of new members. But with a finite number of homes, you know what you’re getting.”

Mel Malkoff, a land planning consultant representing the church, said opponents have unfairly portrayed the project as a “concrete giant.”

Malkoff said that, in an attempt to be “good neighbors” and show their recognition of the concerns about traffic, overdevelopment and building heights, the church scaled down its proposals from what they were a year ago. The proposal for the sanctuary reduced the number of seats from 5,700 to 4,800 seats. The heights and configurations of several buildings have been changed to better conceal them from Santiago Canyon Road, Malkoff said. The church also, in an attempt to discourage its members from using forest land, eliminated several hiking and biking trails leading to Cleveland National Forest on the north side of the property.

‘Bare Bones’

“We’ve scaled back the project to the bare bones,” Malkoff said. “I’m not sure we can reduce it further and still have a credible church program or provide for this congregation to grow.”

Malkoff said that the Santiago Canyon Road site was not the congregation’s first choice. He pointed out that, in a county whose population has nearly doubled since 1970 and whose median home price is $250,000, the congregation had a tough time finding land it could afford. The Lyon property, although it is farther away from the residential core of Saddleback Valley, is big enough for the church to operate its many varied programs in one place.

“We looked at every piece of available land from Irvine to San Clemente and found nothing that was large enough within our price range,” Kruen said. “It’s only because of our size that we were able to finally afford” the Lyon site. “I don’t know how a small church can do it these days. We’re lucky.”

But Kruen said that he is not sure how much longer the church can afford to wait to build its facility. Interest payments on the mortgage for the property, he said, are running about $28,000 a month, and the annual property taxes are about $100,000. “That’s half a million dollars a year, and there’s nothing we can do but sit and wait,” he said. “It’s frustrating.”

Some Are ‘Impatient’

Don Hill, a Mission Viejo resident and three-year member of the church, agreed:

“The congregation is excited about becoming part of that community out there, helping shape its future. But some members are getting impatient. They believe the time to move forward is now--or find another alternative.”

And there are canyon residents who are not opposed to having a church there.

Bob Bess, president of the Canyon View Condominium Assn., the body that oversees operation of the 141-unit complex, lives on a ridge west of Santiago Canyon Road in the Portola Hills development. Looking east from his back yard, he would be peering right down on the church. Bess said he has concerns about the potential for traffic but that he believes there would be some advantage to having the church there.

“There is a need for churches in this community,” Bess said. “This is a fair proposal that will help our community mature. We can’t say no to everything.”

What the Church Is Proposing The Saddleback Valley Community Church is proposing to build a 4,800-seat sanctuary and other buildings on a 113-acre parcel in the foothills east of Mission Viejo. The project has drawn opposition from environmenttalists and local residents, who argue that it would change the character of the area. Church officials disagree. Also proposed for this site * A 2,886-seat fellowship hall that would include assembly seating, classrooms, administrative offices, dining hall, kitchen and storage areas. It would be 54 feet high and about 74, 750 square feet. * Three ancillary church buildings would include 84 Sunday school rooms, offices and multipurpose rooms. * A 4,985-square-foot day-care center and playground for 200 children. * Parking, including two multistory parking structures, for 2,200 vehicles. * Two lighted softball fields. * A resource conservation area and artificial lake. The Sanctuary The 4,800-seat sanctuary would be nearly seven stories tall at highest point and cover 51, 337 square feet. The Seating Comparison

A comparison of the proposed Saddleback Valley Community Church to other sizable churches in the county.

Calvary Chapel,Santa Ana: 1,908 seats South Coast Community Church,Irvine: 2,300 seats Vineyard Christian Fellowship,Anaheim: 2,500 seats First Evangelical Free Church, Fullerton: 2,500 seats Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove: 3,000 seats Saddleback Valley Community Church,Santiago Canyon (proposed): 4,800 seats