Artesia Rejects Church That ‘People Didn’t Want’

Despite best wishes from the Queen of Denmark, $650,000 in pledges and contributions and a donation of 1.1 acres of land, a Danish congregation from Los Angeles recently was unable to persuade the Artesia City Council to allow construction of a church.

“The people didn’t want it. The council listens to the people,” Councilman Jim Van Horn said in discussing why the council voted last week to reject a proposed 3,500-square-foot church and a 4,000-square-foot assembly hall. The council was being asked to issue a conditional-use permit that would have allowed the church to be built in a single-family residential zone.

Three council members voted against the proposal. Councilman Ronald Oliver abstained because his home is next to the site at 11504 E. 178th St. Mayor Dennis Fellows was on vacation, but indicated this week that he agreed with the decision.

“It is rather simple in Artesia. If the people don’t want it, they don’t get it,” Fellows said.

The mostly residential community of 15,000 has little open space remaining in its 1.6 square miles, and residents generally disapprove of new developments that they believe will cause overcrowding, Fellows said. Last February, he said, the council rejected a proposal for a new five-story Holiday Inn after residents objected.

“I thought the hotel was a pretty good idea, but you can’t forget why you are here. You have got to listen to (residents),” said Fellows, a 15-year member of the council.

And many residents said the facility that the Danish Lutheran Church of Los Angeles proposed to build would only create more traffic congestion and noise.

“We are not opposed to a church, but this is a residential area. Traffic would be tripled,” said Willemina Feikema, who lives across the street from the site. Feikema helped gather 45 signatures of residents on a petition opposing the project.

“The church would only bring noise and more racket for us,” said Celia Bailey, who signed the petition.

Feikema and Bailey have lived in Artesia more than 30 years. They say enough traffic is already generated by Burbank Elementary School, across the street from the site, and the Artesia Christian Church, about a block away.

Members of the Danish Lutheran Church of Los Angeles collected 71 signatures supporting the church’s construction.

But an analysis showed that only 16 signers lived near the site, while the other 55 lived outside the immediate area or outside the city, according to a city staff report.

The chairman of the church’s relocation committee, Carlo Christensen, said parishioners probably would start searching for another site within the Los Angeles Basin. Christensen said the 110-member church wants to move from the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles, where it has been located since 1937, to escape rising gang violence and crime.

During the past summer, he said, a television set, office equipment, a couple of computers, a loudspeaker and a number of cars have been stolen at the church.

The church received a $500,000 pledge from the Tom and Valley Knudsen Foundation of Los Angeles, and a fund-raising campaign netted more than $150,000, which included “a generous donation” from Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Christensen said.

Church members June and Andy Andersen were prepared to donate land behind their Artesia home, where they have lived for more than 25 years.

The Andersens once operated a nursery on the property, which has a gazebo, a garden and a small building that social clubs and individuals have used for gatherings such as wedding receptions, June Andersen said.

“One of my neighbors who is complaining (about the project) apparently has forgotten that her daughter had her wedding reception here,” she said.

“We have lots of parties,” Andersen added, “but we always stop the music at 10 p.m.”

Andersen said that in a few months she may ask the City Council to reconsider.

In July, the city Planning Commission rejected the church’s request on grounds that traffic in the area would increase and that concerts, dinners and wedding receptions at the church would create too much noise.