DANA POINT : A Church’s Dream Will Take Form

Twenty years after moving from the sleepy Doheny Village neighborhood along Doheny Park Road in Capistrano Beach to a prominent Dana Point hillside, parishioners of St. Edward Catholic Church are finally hoping to see their dream--a new church overlooking Dana Point Harbor.

Before a City Council chamber full of happy church supporters, the Dana Point Planning Commission last week voted 3 to 2 to approve the design of the new, $2.25-million church. Commissioners Carlos Olvera and Jim Hyde cast the dissenting votes.

Father Louis Knight, the pastor at St. Edward, called it “a magnificent structure.”

“We are finishing what we began planning 20 years ago,” said Knight, who arrived in Dana Point in 1969 when there were only 500 Catholic families in the immediate area. The parish now includes more than 2,500 families, he said.

Winning the commission’s approval for the new church’s steeple proved to be the most difficult part of the approval process. The commission agreed to the church’s overall design over a month ago, but asked its architect, John Bartlett of Arcadia, to bring back a new scaled-down plan for the steeple.

A compromise was reached when church officials agreed to drop the original steeple from 73 feet to 65 feet and then to lower the height of one wall of the church. That done, the commission voted its approval.

“Our building height limit is normally 28 feet, but I guess churches answer to a higher rule,” Lynn Dawson, the commission chairwoman, said. “Generally speaking, we try to bend rules for churches. We made quite a few exceptions because this church will be an asset to the community.”

The lower level of the proposed two-story church will be about 12,200 square feet, with another 5,300 square feet on the second level. About 1,150 square feet of office space will be built nearby, Knight said. The multipurpose room that has served as the church will become a parish hall, he said.

The new church will include huge glass windows, offering an expansive view of the harbor from one end of Dana Point to the other, Knight said.

Olvera, who voted against the project, objected to its size.

“I just thought its location on such a prominent hill would make it look too massive. It would stand out too strongly,” Olvera said. “I must admit it’s a beautiful design, it’s just the location. Of course that was the intent of both the architect and the church members, for it to be seen all over the community.”