O.C. Church’s Plan Spurs Health, Traffic Concerns

They fear the dead. Not to mention the traffic.

Plans to use a slice of Oso Creek bottomland to expand a Christian retreat center--including adding a crematory--have run into strong opposition from nearby residents, some of whom fear that fumes from cremations will reach their neighborhood.

The proposal by Rancho Capistrano Ministries would more than double the size of the existing retreat south of heavily traveled Avery Parkway. The center is in a mostly open 175-acre area between Interstate 5 and a steep Laguna Niguel ridge topped by $390,000 single-family homes.

The proposal also would add a private Christian high school and a retirement home, and greatly increase the amount of space available for conferences.

But it’s the proposed crematory at the base of their ridge that has drawn the most ire from neighbors.

“That’s the wrong site for [a crematory],” resident Dennis MacLain said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of the discussion. And unless you can come up with something written on stone and coming from the mountaintop, you cannot convince me that this is a healthy thing to have near our homes.”

The planned expansion is being sought by Rancho Capistrano, the San Juan Capistrano campus of the Garden Grove-based Crystal Cathedral.

The organization hopes to build a 420-unit senior housing complex, the private 2,200-student Junipero Serra High School and a 40,000-square-foot wellness center that would include health-care facilities, a spa and a gym.

It also seeks to expand its existing K-8 school from 120 students to 700 and its church from a capacity of 404 to 1,500. And it seeks to double its conference center to 41,000 square feet while increasing the number of guest rooms from 65 to 105.

“Our goal is to have a spiritual oasis, a Christian community with all of the uses working together,” said Cheryl Ellison, Rancho Capistrano’s chief operating director.

Critics say the center would be a money-making venture whose crematory could pose a health risk. There are 75 licensed crematories in California, six of them in Orange County, according to Liz Kanter, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs. Although the facilities are regulated by the Air Quality Management District, residents in other communities--tenants in a Costa Mesa apartment complex that abuts a Neptune Society facility, for instance--complain of foul odors and express health worries.

And then there’s the traffic. Residents said that with the addition of a high school and the other expansions, congestion on their already snarled streets would worsen, especially on already jammed Avery Parkway near the interchange with Interstate 5.

Residents Resist Traffic; Church Favors Land Use

The only entrance to the facility is from Camino Capistrano, near Avery Parkway, but the ministry wants to add a southern entrance to funnel high school traffic along Camino Los Padres through a Laguna Niguel neighborhood.

“They need to come up with a reasonable traffic plan that doesn’t require people to make a journey through Laguna Niguel neighborhoods,” resident Gregg Marston said. “Our view is, that’s just not right. If it means they have to build another offramp, so be it.”

For Crystal Cathedral officials, congestion would mean more people are being reached by their ministry.

“As our master plan develops, it is our intention to provide a balanced use of the available land for significant projects that serve not only the church but also our community,” said Larry Sonnenburg, chief operating officer for Crystal Cathedral, which for 30 years has been the broadcast home for the Rev. Robert Schuller’s “Hour of Power” television program.

Schuller’s son, also named Robert, is pastor of Rancho Capistrano, whose gated entrance can easily be seen from the freeway. The center already is a popular destination, drawing 67,000 people a year for services, conventions, youth camps and soccer tournaments. The chapel has a waiting list of engaged couples and the existing guest rooms are on a par with high-end hotels.

Rancho Capistrano isn’t the only entity with designs on the land, though.

Capistrano Unified School District officials are conducting their own environmental study of the site on which Rancho Capistrano wants to build its high school as they consider taking the land by eminent domain and building a middle school there, said Dave Doomey, the district’s assistant superintendent of facilities.

None of those uses is what John Crean had in mind 20 years ago when he donated more than 90 of Rancho Capistrano’s 175 acres.

Crean, founder of recreational vehicle-maker Fleetwood Enterprises, lived on the ranch with his family for 13 years before deeding the property to Crystal Cathedral to preserve it as a meditation site.

Even then, he acknowledged, the area wasn’t that conducive to quiet reflection, given its location next to railroad tracks and the freeway.

“It’s just a noisy area,” Crean said.

Crean said he opposed earlier Crystal Cathedral plans to build a retirement village there and he doesn’t like what he knows about the current proposal.

“We didn’t want to see it developed,” said Crean, who now lives in Newport Beach. “It’s a shame, and I hate to see it, but I don’t think there’s a heck of a lot I would do about it. Though the intent of the gift was to make this primarily a retreat, they’ve done everything but that.”

The ranch’s existing facilities are clustered in the north end of the property. As visitors pass through the gates, they follow a narrow paved road lined with plants and brick planters brimming with flowers.

The “Walk of Faith,” its stepping stones etched with Bible verses and the names of patrons, meanders through the developed part of the ranch, across from the administration building to the conference center, around a lake and to a pool.

The facility also has fields for soccer and church picnics, a ropes course used in team-building exercises, and a bridge across the lake to a gazebo island, a popular wedding spot.

Most of the 175 acres, though, is undeveloped.

Although most of the site lies within San Juan Capistrano city limits, a portion of the already developed land falls in an unincorporated area of the county, which ministry officials are asking the city to annex.

Rancho Capistrano has considered different options for developing the land over the years, and the current plan is more than 5 years old, according to the Orange County Planning and Development Services Department.

Ministry officials see the campus becoming an interactive environment, with senior citizens from the retirement home working with the students from the private schools, and pastors ministering to families arranging memorial services at the mortuary.

Ministry officials wouldn’t say how much the project would cost, or offer a timeline, other than to say that construction could begin within a year of the plan’s approval. Earlier, ministry officials hoped the high school could be open this fall.

An environmental review is underway, with a final report due in November, city records indicate.

Ellison said ministry officials take their cues from a higher power.

“We really look at it as God’s property, and God will reveal to us in time when it’s going to be appropriate to develop which use,” Ellison said.

Ministry officials declined to discuss how much revenue the proposed facilities could bring in, saying only that the proceeds would be used to maintain the property and cover operating costs.

Critics, though, see evasiveness behind the lack of details, and residents who overlook the campus have vowed to fight the project. They recently formed Healthy Environment for Local People to pressure Laguna Niguel officials into sending letters to San Juan Capistrano detailing their concerns.

Laguna Niguel officials also are lining up traffic and air-quality consultants to review the pending environmental report.

San Juan Capistrano officials said they will await results of the environmental study before forming opinions.