LOS ALAMITOS : Church Can’t Move Next to ‘Crash Zone’
Citing safety as its main concern, the City Council this week turned down a request by a local church that it be allowed to move next to a military runway’s “crash zone”.
The 900-member Grace Church wanted to convert two vacant industrial buildings into a fellowship hall, sanctuary and Sunday school classrooms on the southern tip of Winners Circle.
The property--owned by Los Caballeros Center, a retail-development company--lies directly outside the Armed Forces Reserve Center crash zone, an area extending 1,500 feet on either side of a runway’s center line.
“I am not comfortable putting men, women and children in harm’s way,” Councilman Anthony Selvaggi said.
The issue had led to sometimes-bitter confrontations among the council members, property owners and church officials. During one such exchange, the owners accused the council of “fabricating” the safety issue to gloss over the economic impact of allowing a church, instead of a business, to move to the site.
Council members said the property owners and church officials were muddying the safety issue by bringing up civil rights and religious freedom. The church needed the council’s approval of a conditional use permit because the property is zoned for light industrial use. The city Planning Commission had already denied the church’s request.
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