Church Caught in the Lurch

IRVINE —  Since its genesis in 1951, Irvine Community Church has been as familiar with freeways as Noah was with the ark or Jonah was with the whale.

A quaint stucco building with an orange tile roof, looking almost like a home stranded in a forest of concrete, the church sits on Sand Canyon Avenue, less than 50 feet from the Santa Ana Freeway.

But an offramp connecting the freeway with a new stretch of toll road threatens to bring cars close enough to let passing drivers hear the choir.

“I don’t know how to put this exactly, but certainly, if we had our druthers, we’d rather not have concrete pillars rising up 50 feet over our heads,” said Assistant Pastor John Neel, 51.

The church is among the latest casualties of tollway construction in Orange County. On the narrow plot of land between the sanctuary and the Santa Ana Freeway, which rises just west of the church, the Transportation Corridor Agencies is building a massive offramp that will connect the Eastern Transportation Corridor with the northbound Santa Ana Freeway.

When completed in August 1998, the offramp will be 2,087 feet long and rise 38 feet, or three stories, from the point nearest the church, according to Lisa Telles, spokeswoman for the TCA.

For the five years preceding construction, church officials found themselves in the company of strange bedfellows--environmentalists and other foes of big development, who spoke out vigorously against the toll roads, to little avail.

Neel describes Irvine Community Church as a “very conservative, fundamentalist, Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church.” In other words, its members move toward liberals with much trepidation.

But on the subject of the tollway that threatens to keep the church in perpetual shadow, he and his congregation were on the side of the liberals, Neel said.

“No one wants a freeway hanging over their roof, but there it is,” Neel said.

In response to protests, the Transportation Corridor Agencies has attempted to lessen the inconvenience by replacing the chapel entrance with thicker doors and the windows with double-paned glass.

The agency also installed central air conditioning in a church office next door in an effort to reduce the noise caused by the cranes, bulldozers and jackhammers, not to mention the hubbub on the freeway.

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“They’re doing all they can to make it as pleasant as possible,” Neel said with a sigh of resignation.

As far as the church is concerned, the issue of the freeway is a closed book. But Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea, a TCA director, said Friday that she would be willing to meet with the church to improve the situation.

“I think it’s incumbent on public officials to protect the rights of residents--and churches too--to make sure such projects don’t pose a problem,” Shea said. “If there are real concerns among the members, then we need to find out ways to mitigate the problem. I’d at least try to help.”

Now that the congregation of about 125 people has begun to adjust to the specter of an offramp in the making, some have begun to worry about the possibility of a commercial airport at the nearby El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

“Aside from the airport issue, we’re concerned about the loss of the base and how that’s going to affect us,” Neel said. “Our number of Marine families has dropped so low already. . . . In recent weeks, though, we’ve been encouraged by the sight of new families from Irvine and Mission Viejo. It’s as though God is providing replacements for the people who are leaving.”

Construction stops during Sunday services, Neel said, but anyone gazing at what’s happening near the church might be permitted a twinge of anger. A fence has gone up next to a playground, with cranes and jagged vertical columns hovering ominously nearby.

The church is making the best of it, Neel said, noting that “the work of the Lord” still goes on within the walls of Irvine Community Church.

Still, he and other members of the congregation find themselves increasingly at odds with the whims of developers, which, in Orange County, can put one in the minority.

“I don’t have a real strong opinion,” Neel said, “but in this county, it seems every place you look, somebody’s tearing down something--to build a road, a shopping mall or a new set of houses that all look alike. At times you wonder, ‘When will it end? Or will it end?’

“But in our case, we have our faith, and nothing will shake that . . . certainly, not a freeway.”