TUSTIN : Group Modifies Building Plans

After changes to a plan for its new sanctuary had surrounding residents up in arms, representatives of the Congregation B’nai Israel have agreed to modify the facility. The proposed changes would include added landscaping and revision of the synagogue’s parking lot.

The congregation applied to the city several weeks ago for a revision of its original site plan, which was approved more than a year ago. The change was sought after synagogue officials discovered that a surveyor’s error had put the new sanctuary 25 feet closer to residents’ property lines than had been initially approved by the Planning Commission and the homeowners.

The congregation had already begun construction on the building and had installed underground plumbing when the error was discovered, Rabbi Eli Spitz said.

“Rather than ripping the whole thing out, they asked the Planning Commission to amend the plan,” said Dan Fox, Tustin’s senior city planner.

A number of residents of the nearby Monterey housing tract subsequently signed a petition opposing the revisions. They complained that they had not been informed of the proposed changes, although they are available for review at City Hall.

“It was a combination of not being happy with it being closer to the property, combined with not having a comfortable understanding of what happened and why it changed,” said Doug Wride, one of about a dozen residents who would have been most affected by the changes.

City planner Fox said the homeowners were concerned about the impact of a parking lot behind them and an increase in lighting and noise that it could generate.

Residents and representatives from the congregation have since met several times in an effort to reach a compromise.

Under the revised plan, the synagogue has agreed to change the landscaping at the edge of the synagogue to create more of a buffer, add more trees and lower the height of the lights in the parking lot so they will be less disruptive to residents, said Michael Schneider, chairman of the project development committee for the congregation.

The synagogue also has agreed to eliminate parking from part of the synagogue’s north wall that would come too close to residents’ property and to move the trash enclosure to the other side of the property, Schneider said.

Both the residents and the representatives of the congregation say they are pleased with the results.

“They’ve been very cooperative,” Wride said. “We were never against the temple being there; we were just concerned with the changes being made. Everybody is content now.”