Planners Approve Preschool Under Marine Flight Path

Overriding the objections of the military and its own staff, a divided County Planning Commission on Tuesday approved a preschool facility at a church that is under a Marine Corps flight path.

While the move is certain to be appealed by the Marine Corps, the Planning Commission’s 3-2 vote clears the way for the Lake Hills Community Church in Laguna Hills to open a 180-student preschool, perhaps by September.

The debate was civil and often friendly at Tuesday’s commission meeting. “There was definitely no bad blood,” one church official said afterward.

But the use of land surrounding El Toro Marine Corps Air Station has proven the point of deepest contention for Marine Corps officials in their relationship with the community. Because of that, the commission’s ruling was considered a major setback for the corps.

“It’s another strain on the camel’s back--the encroachment gets closer and closer,” said Marine Col. Leonard R. Fuchs Jr., community liaison officer at El Toro. “This was a surprise.”

Fuchs said the Marine Corps would appeal the decision to the Board of Supervisors.

While businesses have been allowed to set up shop in increasing numbers in recent years within flight paths and noise contours outside El Toro, the Laguna Hills facility would mark the closest school yet to the base, Fuchs said.

The preschool would be located within the Lake Hills Church at 23331 Moulton Parkway, about two miles south of the Marine base. The preschoolers served would range in age from 2 years, 9 months to kindergartners.

Under military guidelines, the proposed preschool is located both within a high-impact noise zone and an “accident-potential zone,” or APZ, which would generally make a school unacceptable under military standards.

“The rule is very clear. . . . If a plane is going to crash, this is the area,” Fuchs said. “We don’t want anyone to build in the APZs.”

But three planning commissioners--Thomas Moody, E. Chuck McBurney and A. Earl Wooden--saw it differently and voted for the plan.

Despite a staff recommendation to reject the church’s use permit request because of safety and noise concerns, Moody argued that the preschool would be little different from the businesses and county offices that already exist in the neighborhood and did not warrant a “double standard.”

“This is not an isolated area, where we’re putting some kids at a school,” Moody said. “It’s hard for me to understand really, frankly, why there’s a problem.”

Church Deacon Rick Goacher said the children would be outdoors--and thus exposed to jet noise--for only an hour a day, and that church officials are comfortable after consulting with experts that there is no danger.

“This was a very difficult decision,” Goacher said of the commission’s ruling. The debate put the church in the somewhat ironic position of having to oppose the Marine Corps--even though up to 30% of its 900 members are themselves Marines from the neighboring base.

Planning Commission Chairman Roger Slates and new commissioner Clarice A. Blamer voted against the preschool proposal, saying they had concerns about the safety of the children.

Rebutting arguments from fellow commissioners that others had been granted use permits in the area, Blamer said: “Because we have done something wrong in the past is no reason to keep repeating it.”