Church plans upset neighbors

Christ Lutheran Church and School in Costa Mesa wants to expand its Westside campus, which has surrounding neighbors up in arms.

The biggest seed of contention is a one-story house in the neighborhood next to the church, which the church bought and plans to demolish and turn into a landscaped area, according to the application. The church also wants permission to build a new two-story administration building in the immediate future and to build a café, a youth loft and new music facilities when funding becomes available.

Some neighbors say that church expansion is a harbinger of growth in school enrollment and church participation that they think would increase the number of drivers speeding through the neighborhood to drop off students and would lower property values.

Jerry Simpson, who owns the house next door to the corner house the church wants to knock down, took it upon himself to pay $1,220 to appeal a unanimous Planning Commission decision in late January approving the proposed expansion. The City Council will hear the issue after 7 tonight.

“It’s going to affect me more than anyone else in the neighborhood,” Simpson said.

When he sent out a letter to his neighbors asking their opinions, he was surprised by the overwhelming support he received.

Principal Richard Nordmeyer says the funding for much of the expansion is not available yet, and the majority of the improvements will have to wait at least three years. Right now, enough has been raised to start the $1.5-million first phase of the project, but millions more will be needed to complete everything.

“We really want to be good neighbors. This church has been here for 50 years. Our desire is to please our neighbors and make sure that whatever we do in this expansion we don’t do anything to offend them in any way,” Nordmeyer said, adding that in any new project it is impossible to please everyone.

It seems like the proposal angers many more people than it pleases, though.

Several residents living in homes across from the house that will be torn down at 2199 Raleigh Ave. say they already have problems with the amount of noise generated by the school and also by the unsafe speeds that parents drive when taking their kids to school. More growth will only exacerbate the problem, they say.

Alan Tasedan, who lives a block over and used to go to the church, drove down Raleigh Avenue on Monday afternoon and stopped in front of a couple of his neighbors standing on the sidewalk to tell them how outraged he was at the proposal.

“People that drop their kids off drive through here like it’s a freeway,” Tasedan said.

His neighbors agreed.

Elias Galarza, who lives directly across from 2199 Raleigh Ave., said when his children were younger he would worry about their safety every day when he left the house.

“Every year they keep adding more and more people. I’m not happy because it’s going to be noisy and affect our children,” Galarza said.

A handful of other nearby residents sent letters to Simpson agreeing with his objections to the new development. He compiled them and gave them to the City Council.

Not everyone is against the idea. Fred Jones, Galarza’s next door neighbor who said he sold the house at 2199 Raleigh Ave. to the church and lives across the street, fully supports the expansion.

“I’ve lived here since 1968 and the church has always been good neighbors to me,” Jones said.

As it stands, the Raleigh Avenue neighbors have a buffer separating them from the church. A roughly 6-foot cinder block wall separates the backyards of houses adjacent to the church, from the campus.

Even if the plan were approved, 2199 Raleigh Ave. would not be razed for at least a few years, officials said. Right now, a new associate pastor at the church is living in it.

Future expansion is contingent on the church’s ability to raise money and the ever-changing population, Nordmeyer said.

“We’re not growing in leaps and bounds but we are growing in membership. We don’t have the intent to become a large mega church. We’re just putting in a plan saying if we grow these are the classrooms we will need,” Nordmeyer said.

Reporter ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.