HUNTINGTON BEACH : Proposal for New Church Rejected

Siding with about 75 protesting residents, the City Council unanimously rejected a massive church proposed for a site across the street from City Hall.

Council members said the project would create too much traffic, noise, air pollution and demand for parking space. The Church of Religious Science sought to construct a two-story, 42,000-square-foot building, enclosing a 1,842-seat church, classrooms, activity rooms, offices, a bookstore and a chapel.

The development was proposed for a site in the northeast corner of the Seacliff Office Park on Yorktown Avenue at Main Street. The church for the past seven years has held services in a rented space in the office park without complaint, nearby residents and city staff officials said.

But the proposed new location, an old oil field, is surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ranch residential community, a gated neighborhood of townhouses. And the residents, although they emphasized that they don’t mind living next to a church, vehemently oppose what one resident called a “mega-church.”

Pacific Ranch residents in recent months had banded together in a lobbying campaign against the development. City officials said they received 17 letters and a petition bearing 81 signatures opposing the project.

Proponents of the project argued that the office-style building would blend well with the surrounding area and pointed out that church activities are typically conducted on weeknights and weekend days, when traffic is minimal.