O.C. church, preschool to be demolished for townhomes

Another house of worship is on its way out in Garden Grove to make way for more housing.

The nearly 2-acre site, at 9822 Russell Ave., is currently home to Spanish-language and Vietnamese Christian church services, as well as the Orangefield Child Development Center.

But that will soon change after the Garden Grove City Council on Tuesday moved forward with plans to build 26 townhomes on church grounds, with developers eyeing model homes open for tours as early as next year.

“The church, itself, is a landmark,” Councilmember Joe DoVinh said in a council meeting. “We have a little bit of nostalgia that it’s getting demolished, but the community that’s coming in there will shine.”

The council approved similar plans last year for a parcel on Santa Catalina Avenue, subdividing a property housing Grace Baptist Church to accommodate the development of 26 market-rate townhomes.

Working with a different developer this time around, officials opened a public hearing on bringing more than two dozen market-rate units to the Iglesia de Cristo and Cross Country Vietnamese Christian Church sanctuary.

Council members considered making the necessary zoning changes to allow the housing project to become shovel ready in the future.

The church site, which also includes a preschool, was not included in Garden Grove’s housing element plan. But the property owner sought to go in a different direction, seeing the space as suitable for residential development.

“It’s additional land that somebody just wanted to develop as housing,” Priit Kaskla, a senior planner with the city, told the council. “We’ll take the credit for it, but we’re not requiring them to do any sort of affordable housing on it.”

Although nobody spoke in opposition to the development at Tuesday’s meeting, one individual raised concerns about parking and traffic when the proposal came before the city’s Planning Commission on May 21.

Kaskla informed councilmembers that the proposed plan met the minimum parking requirements.

Chad Brown, a represenative for Irvine-based developer Melia Homes, noted that considerations for the surrounding neighborhood whittled the Spanish revival-styled townhome plans down from three to two-stories. He called the project a “fantastic fit for the neighborhood.”

Brown also addressed questions about the lack of any affordable housing units for sale.

“Affordable housing in the for-sale market is somewhat inappropriate,” he said. “Affordable housing opportunities really belong in the rental market, where you can reduce and subsidize part of the rent.”

Melia Homes did previously offer a select few townhomes at affordable sale rates at its Breckyn project in Garden Grove, through the city’s affordable housing program.

Brown revealed the community coming to the church site property would be branded the “Landon” and estimated townhomes would likely be priced somewhere around $850,000.

Council members agreed that the Landon, nestled near Little Saigon and Orange County Koreatown in Garden Grove, would offer meaningful homebuyer opportunities in the city. The vote to support the project going forward was unanimous.

“In Garden Grove, we build really strong relationships with our developers,” said Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein. “We’re seeing [a lot of these church properties] grow and change. We appreciate the continued partnership and the work on this.”