Panel OKs Church Over Complaints of Neighbors

A Los Angeles city panel gave permission Monday to a 35-member Christian congregation to build their first church in Mission Hills despite objections from neighbors who said they feared increased traffic, loud assemblies and a steeple towering over their homes.

To placate residents who complained that the Christadelphians’ proposed sanctuary and Sunday school would be an intrusion into their neighborhood of single-family homes, the Board of Zoning Appeals voted 3 to 1 to slap restrictions on the congregation limiting services to Sunday and one night a week.

“I believe that a church is something that belongs in the community, like schools, libraries and police stations,” said board member Ilene Olansky. “A church can enrich a neighborhood.”

The 1,500-square-foot sanctuary, 4,500 square feet of classroom space for Bible study and Sunday school, and 50 parking spaces, which members said would cost about $800,000, will serve about 75 people including children. The cost of the land and the building is to be paid for by members as well as other Christadelphians in the area.

But nearby residents are not convinced that such a structure is a desirable. The neighbors promised to continue their protests before the full City Council, which must also approve the building.

“Mind you, we don’t have any problem with religion,” said resident Bruce Ritter. “We are concerned about the building and what will happen to our neighborhood when it is used to full capacity.”

Kenneth Sommerville, who serves as head of the Christadelphians and is known as the congregation’s recording brother, said he is a bit confused over the fuss. He thought the location at 15711 San Fernando Mission Road was an ideal location for a church because it is on a busy street and adjacent to a San Diego Freeway off-ramp.

Besides, he said in defense of his tiny congregation: “We are a quiet, low-key congregation. We have never been criticized for being overly emotional or enthusiastic. In fact, the opposite is the case.”

He said the congregation has been meeting for the past 10 years at the North Valley YWCA and does not have anyplace for Sunday school supplies. The Christadelphians, whose services concentrate on Bible studies and lectures by members, were established in the Eastern United States in the mid-1800s.

In a letter to the board, Sommerville wrote that church services “are reverent” and that the “music consists of traditional hymns with piano accompaniment.”

But neighbors countered that the congregation will bring unwanted traffic hazards to the neighborhood because the church driveway is near a freeway off-ramp already troubled with speeding cars. They also said the church’s annual fraternal meeting will cause parking problems.

Stella Hoffman, whose home and back-yard horse stables abut the church property, said she objects to the building because the planned steeple would be 32 feet high.

A zoning administrator had previously denied the Christadelphians a conditional-use permit to construct the church in a neighborhood zoned for single-family homes, stating that the building was too large and that city officials could not guarantee that the building would not be sold to a larger, more boisterous congregation.

But on Tuesday the board overturned the decision after the church appealed. The board required the congregation to reduce the size of the structure, limit attendance to no more than 75 people and to lower the height of the steeple to 25 feet. The board also ordered the church to plant landscaping to buffer the church from the homes.

“I think we can live with those requirements,” Sommerville said after the hearing. “The brethren have been waiting for this church for a long time.”