Trinity Broadcasting Appeals Restrictions

Trinity Broadcasting Network has appealed a motion by the Costa Mesa Planning Commission that places good-neighbor rules on the televangelist ministry before it is allowed to conduct outdoor tapings.

The commission on March 24 imposed two dozen restrictions on TBN operations, including a 10 p.m. curfew for churchgoers, limits on nighttime hours of its million-light display and limits on street parking by buses and cars.

The TV ministry was told it must adhere to the guidelines for nine months before the Planning Commission would consider the outdoor taping plan.

In an appeal filed Monday, TBN lawyer John Casoria called the commission’s delay “unreasonable and unnecessary.”

“This motion ... imposes a substantial, undue burden on TBN’s ability to conduct its religious services in a manner it chooses without a valid, justifiable or legally viable reason,” the appeal says.

Casoria said the continuance was intended to appease TBN’s neighbors, “who clearly have an agenda which has nothing to do with quality-of-life issues.”

Diane Dorrien, whose home faces the TBN complex at Bear Street and the San Diego Freeway, said she wasn’t surprised to learn of the appeal.

“This thing is just not going to be quiet while Trinity is on probation,” she said. “But nobody would be hearing from us if it was quiet and peaceful over here.”