Church’s Plan to Expand School Angers Neighbors

It’s the church in South Pasadena. With a 5,000-plus member congregation that includes four former mayors, Holy Family Church is the most powerful political force in this small town.

But in its quest to expand its parochial school, the church has run into the most powerful movement in town--South Pasadena’s determined efforts to preserve the past.

Holy Family’s neighbors complain that an expanded school would scar their quiet neighborhood of old Craftsman-style homes, and they have moved to declare the block a historic district.

While other municipal scandals ebb and flow, this battle is the real talk of the town, and rhetoric escalated at a packed City Council meeting Wednesday night, with Holy Family parishioners issuing pointed reminders of their church’s place in the community.

“Many of the very people who make South Pasadena the wonderful city it is were educated at Holy Family. A lot of the people who run this city worship at Holy Family,” parishioner Dennis Dieckmann told the council. “Think of what life would be like around here without Holy Family.”

Residents who say the church’s new schoolhouse would deface their neighborhood don’t like that argument. “They are getting too big for their britches,” said homeowner Barbara England. “They’re saying we have the money, we raise the money, we’re building this over your dead body.”

Even though the Holy Family issue pits neighbor against neighbor, it is, for some, less serious than some controversies South Pasadena has suffered in recent months--two city officials charged with embezzlement, a police sex scandal and a district attorney’s investigation of the Police Department after allegations of officers covering up a hit-and-run traffic crash.

“It is a pleasure to deal with these kinds of problems compared with other issues I have had to deal with in recent months,” said Linda Holmes, interim city manager.

The proposed church expansion would be the largest development project ever in South Pasadena, a town whose identity over the past 25 years has hinged on its passion for the past and its long-running battle to stop the Long Beach Freeway extension.

The church’s 300-student K-8 parochial school is crammed into three small buildings at the southeast corner of its land, on the corner of Rollin Street and Fremont Avenue.

Last year, Holy Family submitted plans to relocate three church-owned bungalows and consolidate the school in a new two-story, 30,000-square foot building, which would be located on the northwestern edge of its property on Ramona Avenue. So far, church officials say they have $10.8 million in pledges to fund the project.

The new school will have only 11 more students--all kindergartners--than the current 306 in attendance, parish officials say.

In addition to the planned school facility, the church is seeking to build a 12,000-square-foot, two-story administration building and to expand the school’s playground, which now consists of three basketball hoops in the church parking lot.

Ramona Avenue residents take a dim view of the project. “They are building a monolith,” said Ramona Avenue homeowner Susan Carter-SooHoo. “We could say it’s ugly but that wouldn’t quantify its size.”

“The school is a very critical part of the equation for us, because this touches on our children,” Msgr. Clement Connolly said.

“When you start talking about our children we get very intense.”

At first glance, the battle between the 18 Ramona Avenue homeowners and Holy Family seems lopsided.

Parishioners at the church include former South Pasadena Mayors Jim Hodge, Alva Lee Arnold, Ted Shaw and Dick Richards--who is still on the City Council.

Shaw, who has been a prominent advocate of the expansion, heads the city’s ad hoc committee on a crucial utility tax issue with another Holy Family parishioner, Gina Osti.

But the church faces a host of obstacles in its efforts. First it needs a batch of land-use permits and legal changes, including an amendment to the city’s general plan. Also, the Ramona Avenue homeowners have moved to make their block a historic district, which would bar Holy Family from replacing its bungalows and expanding the school.

Through a disputed state law, the church’s attorneys are seeking exemption from the district.

When the City Council considered making Ramona Avenue a historic district Wednesday night, its chambers were packed with 55 Holy Family parishioners, as well as more than a dozen Ramona Avenue residents and preservationists. Parishioners pleaded that the council not favor buildings over children.

Robert Murray, 72, graduated from Holy Family’s school in 1938. “It has not increased any [in size] since I went there,” he said.

“For this district to stand in the way of our children would be the same as if every member of our church stood in the way of what the city wants in education.”

Osti said the church was active in helping pass a bond issue for the local public schools last year, but that some community members aren’t willing to reciprocate and allow the church project to proceed. “I think that’s prejudicial,” she said.

The City Council put off making any decision on the district for at least two weeks so it could study the matter.

City Hall insiders expect a tight vote and predict the development will become the burning issue in the upcoming March elections. All expect a hotly contested fight.

“Whichever way you go, you may get the other side upset and you may get into litigation,” Councilman Paul Zee said.

“They are all obviously passionate people who are dedicated to their cause, and they are all decent people,” said Mayor Dorothy Cohen. “One just hates to see this sort of situation arise.”