MOORPARK : Church Building to Be Put on Market

A Moorpark church that was built by its members will be put up for sale because the small congregation cannot afford to reinforce the 50-year-old building against earthquakes, a church official said.

The Ebenezer Free Methodist Church on Charles Street could be put on the market as early as next month, church treasurer Jim Almaguer said Tuesday.

The dozen or so members stopped using the church last summer and began meeting in each other’s homes. Church leaders decided to vacate the building because the congregation could not afford the estimated $90,000 to install steel beams in the concrete brick structure.

In response to a state law requiring the seismic retrofitting of non-reinforced masonry buildings, the Moorpark City Council passed a law in September, 1990, requiring owners of seven brick buildings to submit engineering studies on their buildings.

The church was the only owner that did not comply because church leaders reasoned that they should not pay several thousand dollars for an engineer to recommend repairs that they could not afford.

Since that time, a city building official has inspected the building and found cracks in the walls that indicate it might have been damaged by previous earthquakes, according to a Planning Department staff report.

Last Saturday, the church’s governing body, the Pacific Coast Latin American Free Methodist Conference, reiterated a decision not to invest in an engineering study and to sell the building.

Proceeds from the sale may be used to rent or purchase another meeting place for the congregation, Almaguer said.