Church Project Blessed in O.C.

An expansion of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach was approved on a 5-2 City Council vote after council members whittled it down to less than half the space the church requested 2 1/2 years ago.

“Most likely the decision is not going to make either side happy,” said Edward D. Selich, a recently appointed councilman who also served on the city Planning Commission and has twice voted to approve the expansion.

The decision followed a Thursday night council meeting that extended into Friday.

In 2002, the church requested a 36,000-square-foot expansion, which the Planning Commission reduced to 21,741 square feet and combined with usage restrictions. The council further reduced the expansion to just 15,000 square feet, and church leaders said Friday they didn’t know if that would be worth the expense.

“I think we’re disappointed,” said Herb Smith, the church’s chief operating officer. “I don’t think the neighbors are happier than we are with the way it ended up, but we will do our best to consider what the council has given us as an option.”

The church has pushed for the expansion, saying it needs a youth and family center and a gymnasium.

The expansion would also include an underground parking lot with at least 150 parking spaces -- a valuable commodity in a neighborhood that includes Newport Harbor High School, Ensign Intermediate School and Newport Heights Elementary School.

But residents, struggling with heavy traffic and blocked driveways, said the added facilities would add to the problem. If the 4,000-member church needs larger facilities, it should move, they said.

Even at its current 104,000 square feet, the church is bigger than the average Target store, said Don Krotee, president of Newport Heights Improvement Assn., which has actively opposed the proposal.

Some neighbors said that in 1982, the church pledged it would not expand. Church officials said that promise referred to the purchase of more property, but did not preempt expansion on the existing site.

The latest proposed expansion, said Councilman Don Webb, who voted against the proposal and whose district includes the church, is “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Jim Connelly, 53, who identified himself as a church member, said he opposed the expansion because of the neighborhood’s narrow streets, few sidewalks and insufficient parking.

Church members will decide in September how they will proceed with the project, originally estimated to cost $12 million, Smith said.