LOS ALAMITOS : City Passes Buck on ‘Crash Zone’ Case

The City Council has asked the county’s advice on whether a 900-member church should be allowed to move to an industrial area next to a military airfield “crash zone.”

Monday night, the council referred the request from Grace Church to the county Airport Land Use Commission, which may consider the item at a March 15 meeting, City Atty. Tom Allen said.

“What the council then would do is to act on the comment made by the commission as well as to reflect again on the comments we heard during the public hearing (Feb. 12),” Councilman Anthony Selvagdi said.

Grace Church now operates out of Benjamin Rush Elementary School in Rossmoor on a temporary basis. The church has asked the city to allow it to buy a seven-acre site on Winners Circle, but it needs the city’s approval to convert two vacant industrial buildings into a sanctuary, fellowship hall and classrooms.

The construction would require a zone change for the area, which is now intended for industrial uses.

The debate has centered on whether the city wants to allow a church that draws about 700 worshipers every Sunday to locate that close to the Armed Forces Reserve Center airfield’s “crash zone.”

The zone extends 1,500 feet on each side of the runway’s center line. The southeast corner of the proposed church site abuts the crash zone.

In addition to the proposed site’s proximity to the military center, the city Planning Commission rejected the church’s request earlier this month because the area is one of the few in the city zoned for light industry. The commission decided that the property should be limited to that use.