Trouble Brewing for Soup Kitchen : Regulations: Work on House of Yahweh expansion stops after neighbor complains it does not meet city’s setback requirements.

When Norman Wilson drew plans 10 years ago for the building that houses his realty office, Lawndale city planners insisted that he landscape the front of his property.

He didn’t want to give up 500 square feet of office space to trees and grass, but he did it.

That’s why he got so irate when he discovered two weeks ago that neighboring House of Yahweh, a soup kitchen for the homeless that last month broke ground on a two-story addition, was not being held to the same 10-foot setback requirement along 147th Street.

“I hate to be the villain in this aspect,” Wilson said, “but why should House of Yahweh get something that is in conflict with the rules and regulations that everyone else has to live by?”

City officials who investigated Wilson’s complaint found that when the House of Yahweh sought permits two years ago, city planners overlooked the zoning ordinance that requires 10-foot setbacks on all property within the civic center overlay zone near Hawthorne Boulevard.

Late last month, planners ordered construction to stop until the Planning Commission considers whether to grant a variance. The hearing is set for Wednesday. Results of the hearing can be appealed to the City Council. If no appeal is made within 15 days, the ruling is final.

The expansion would allow House of Yahweh, which currently feeds about 200 people daily, to modernize its kitchen, provide bathrooms and showers, and increase its grocery giveaway program.

House of Yahweh advocates say the expansion should improve the homeless center’s relations with its neighbors because men and women will no longer have to stand in lines that wind around the block to get a meal. Complaints by Wilson and others that men have urinated on their lawns, harassed employees, and left trash and bottles at their doorsteps should be alleviated when the new building is finished, supporters say.

“(We’re) not asking for any favors, but I think it’s a point of justice, not charity” that the city grant us an exemption, said House of Yahweh’s executive director, Michele Morris, a sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

House of Yahweh has met every requirement raised by city officials, she said, and the shutdown of construction has been costly for the money-strapped nonprofit organization.

During the halt in construction, footings dug for the foundation collapsed, she said, and redigging them will cost thousands of dollars.

City officials had the opportunity at two public hearings in the last year to discover the setback problem.

“Why didn’t anyone question the setbacks then?” she said.

And when she and community activist Nancy Marthens asked during the last public meeting whether any setbacks were required, a planner assured them that everything was fine, Marthens and Morris said.

In addition, it would not be the first time the city has corrected mistakes by its Planning Department by granting after-the-fact variances, she and others said.

The precedent for the city granting after-the-fact waivers occurred in 1987 when a city attorney’s report concluded that the Planning Department had mistakenly approved several projects that violated zoning ordinances.

Soon after the report was issued, then-Planning Director Nancy Owen resigned. In June, 1988, the City Council granted an amnesty to several developments whose building permits were granted in error.

John Chapman, who became planning director in February, said the planning staff mistakenly used a less-restrictive ordinance in granting a building ordinance to House of Yahweh but that he was “working on trying to make (fewer) mistakes and trying to streamline the system.”

“I think the planning staff at that time overlooked the civic overlay standard and used the other (commercial) standard,” Chapman said. “It was just a simple oversight.”

Wilson said he will argue that it is unfair to exempt the House of Yahweh from the setbacks requirements and will question whether it is legal for the soup kitchen to operate without providing enough parking spaces for its patrons.

“If they bend the rules for one person, they have to bend them for everybody,” he said.

Noting the number of people who have returned for free meals every day for years, he said: “(Morris is) not rehabilitating them or helping them get a job. She’s just feeding them on the backs of the rest of the businesses in the area.”

If the variance is not granted, plans for the building will have to be redone, engineers will have to recalculate the building’s specifications and the Los Angeles County Department of Building and Safety will have to review the plans, Chapman said. The county handles building inspections for the city.

Conceding that requiring new plans would “add a considerable amount of time to the project,” Chapman said he will try to expedite the process of reviewing the new plans if the variance is not granted.

At the House of Yahweh last week, many of the homeless people interviewed said they are disappointed that work on the addition is delayed because it means the showers and bathrooms remain a long way off.

“By delaying the building, it hurts the homeless,” said Lee Buchanan, a 29-year-old South Bay man who has been taking his meals at House of Yahweh for the last two years. “It’s hard to get a job unless you’re clean. It would be better for us and everybody else if they go through with” finishing the building.

Bob Orabona, 33, who has lived out of a van for the last year, said he understands Wilson’s concerns about how the presence of a homeless shelter a few doors away might affect his business.

But he added, “I think if he saw past his prejudices, he would see this new building is very much in his interest because our building is going to look like it belongs here, and it’s going to help the poor help themselves.”