Church Seeks to Reopen School Hit by Tragedy

From the outside, Costa Mesa’s Magnolia Street seems like any neighborhood. Residents get along for the most part, squabbling on occasion but usually over traffic congestion or noise.

But the tragic recent history of the quiet block distinguishes it.

This is the street where the children died, Magnolia residents say. At that preschool. Across from that church. A man intentionally drove his car onto the playground, killing two toddlers and injuring five others.

“I haven’t been able to sleep at night,” said Paul Wilbur of the May 1999 deaths. “I have big trouble with this tragedy.”

And now Lighthouse Coastal Community Church wants to reopen the preschool. Burdened by memories, neighbors say they’ll tell the City Council today why the preschool should stay closed.

On May 3, 1999, Steven Allen Abrams drove his car onto the crowded playground of the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center, a preschool leased from Lighthouse church. Abrams pinned three children beneath his car, killing two. He was sentenced in November 2000 to life in prison.

In September of last year, the preschool director, haunted by the killings, closed the school. Since then, the building has been used sparingly--for an occasional service and Sunday school classes.

Staring at the preschool, Ed Deckert, 44, a facility engineer and consultant for Lighthouse, recalled that May day. But, he said, as bad as it is, the school’s history should not spell its closure.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to leave it empty when we have the ability to have a preschool,” he said.

But four City Council and three Planning Commission meetings later, the church and its neighbors remain pitted against each other over the preschool.

School Has No Parking Lot

“Safety is the biggest issue,” said resident Gary Kilgour, 37.

Because the school has no parking lot, church officials plan to have two drop-off and pickup spots for the children across the street.

Kilgour said having 3- and 4-year-olds walk across the street is “just another accident waiting to happen.”

Wilbur, who lives adjacent to the school, said he knows of no other school that expects toddlers to cross the street to go to class.

The proposed drop-off and pickup plans “made sense” to Willa Bouwens-Killen, a senior planner from the city’s development department who recommended, unsuccessfully, that the Planning Commission approve Lighthouse’s preschool proposal.

The City Council upheld the commission’s recommendation to approve the church’s master plan--minus the preschool. The church will appeal that decision today.

Residents, Officials Raise Safety Concerns

But the safety issues worry Councilwoman Linda Dixon. And she agrees with neighbors that traffic and noise from the church and neighboring Kline School are an issue. At the last council meeting dealing with Lighthouse’s request, she proposed a 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew on church grounds to curtail the problem.

“People’s homes are their castles. People need to . . . be able to listen to music or open a window and enjoy a breeze without noise,” she said.

But those arguments aside, Wilbur said, the real problem is that the Planning Commission left the preschool out of the church’s master plans. The church should have to abide by that.

Church officials say they understand Magnolia Street’s situation. But they refute claims that their plans ignore children’s safety.

Pupils would never cross the street without their parents or teachers, Deckert said. The children’s school day would begin and end in the church, across the street from the school and adjacent to a parking lot.

Noise and traffic from the school shouldn’t be an issue, he said, because the school’s hours will be 9 a.m. to noon--when most neighbors are working.

“Between 9 and 12, it’s a ghost town,” Deckert said.

Church pastor Tom Dazacas, 44, hopes that the City Council can approve a plan that manages to make everyone happy. “We’re not trying to battle anybody,” he said.