LOS ALAMITOS : Church Seeks Site Near ‘Crash Zone’

A 900-member church has appealed for permission to move into industrial buildings just outside the Armed Forces Reserve Station--even though the buildings are next to the airfield “crash zone.”

Grace Church, now operating temporarily in the former Benjamin Rush Elementary School in Rossmoor, has asked the city of Los Alamitos to allow it to buy a seven-acre site on Winners Circle and convert two vacant industrial buildings into a sanctuary, fellowship hall and classrooms.

But the land falls just outside of the reserve station’s crash zone, an area 1,500 feet on each side of the runway’s center line which is considered the most dangerous, airfield commander Lt. Col. William Davies said.

“I don’t know how my conscience will let me put a group of people in harm’s way,” Councilman Anthony R. Selvaggi said this week.

Bob Kingsbury, Grace Church’s executive pastor, said he does not want to put his parishioners in any danger, he just wants his 10-year-old church to have a permanent home.

“I don’t think they are liberal about establishing safe zones and dangerous zones, I think they err on the side of caution,” Kingsbury said. “I think we can assume we are dealing with a safe zone if we are outside of the (crash) zone.”

The city’s Planning Commission rejected the church’s request last month, and the church appealed to the City Council on Monday night. A standing-room-only crowd of about 85 people jammed the council chambers. Most were parishioners there to support the church’s appeal.

The council postponed a decision, but members agreed that safety concerns were dissuading them.

“I have a real concern with putting that amount of people in that dangerous of a zone,” Mayor Robert P. Wahlstrom said. “Frankly, I’m surprised the parishioners aren’t more concerned.”

The council will take up the matter again on Feb. 26.