Expansion still has residents hot

After being a member of St. Andrew’s Church for 43 years and having

been an elder and trustee for six years (although not currently), I

have a hard time thinking of the church as the conniving, deceitful,

noisy, traffic-generating, neighborhood nuisance that I heard it

characterized as on Thursday night. There were stories of cars left

blocking driveways (individual acts that would be condemned by the

church, and now the church gets the blame), heinous crime being

attracted by the proposed subterranean garage and street traffic that

would equal that generated by a USC-UCLA football game, etc.

Plummeting real estate values? What a joke! Those little original

houses that sold 20 years ago for $70,000 are now selling in original

condition for $1.3 million within 50 yards of the church.

In order to compensate for an expansion and the modest increase,

if any, in the cars-per-day count described by the environmental

review as “not significant,” the church has offered to create a

substantial number of additional on-site parking spaces, plus it is

negotiating with the school to create more on their site. We are

offering to close the Clay Street parking entrance and even make it

inconvenient for parishioners to park on Clay and walk in, we are

moving much of the most boisterous youth activities underground to

keep the sound levels under control, and much more. In my opinion,

the neighborhood will be less effected by the presence of an expanded

church than they are by the present church, which outside of parking

issues on Sunday morning is not significant. Removing the entrance on

Clay is a biggie. This would all but eliminate church traffic in

Cliffhaven.

Most of the people complaining about the expansion bought their

homes knowing they were in a neighborhood where a church existed. The

neighborhood has flourished and become one of the most desirable

locations in Newport Beach in spite of, or maybe even because of, its

proximity to a world-class church like St. Andrew’s, whose primary

crime is to want to serve the community more fully and change lives

for the better.

All in all, I heard no arguments Thursday night against the

expansion that were any more than resistance to change. Change is

inevitable. If you don’t believe that, look in your mirror.

NIGEL BAILEY

Corona del Mar

St. Andrew’s should scale its expansion down much, much further. I

thought they were very evasive about their plans for the facility at

the Planning Commission meeting last week. I did not feel that they

were forthcoming about their full plans for the use of the facility.

Closing the Clay Street entrance will only effect the other

streets in Cliffhaven and Newport Heights more.

KATHY RUPERT

Newport Heights

I’ve been a resident of Newport Beach since 1925. I lived on Balboa Island until I married in 1943. We had planned on building our

home in Corona del Mar until we found out that Earl Stanley (our

neighbor on Balboa Island) had started the Cliffhaven tract in early

1947.

We bought our house on Signal Road and moved in December 1947 with

our 6-month-old child. There was a small church on 15th Street, and that’s what it was to be, a small neighborhood church, nothing more.

St. Andrew’s Church has expanded in the past 20 years and now

wants more room under the pretense of helping keep our youth off the

streets. We have after-school activities available for them.

I oppose this expansion in our residential area. Most of the

traffic we have, besides students of Harbor High, are attending St.

Andrew’s Church and coming from Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Irvine

and even Tustin, to name a few.

If the church wants to expand, maybe it’s time for them to find

land available to accommodate their needs and let residents enjoy

their homes with less traffic.

Newport Harbor High School was here before the residents and the

church.

ELOUISE GOGERTY

Cliffhaven

St. Andrew’s should stop harassing our neighborhood with expansion

plans. If they insist on adding indoor basketball courts, etc., to

lure teens from other religions, encourage them to move elsewhere.

We would prefer a considerate congregation that observes zoning

regulations and contributes to our community’s safety, sanity and

spirituality.

St. Andrew’s has become a bigger threat to our quality of life

than the expansion of John Wayne Airport.

MARIANNE COX TOWERSEY

Cliffhaven