Battle rages on

Jose Paul Corona

Leaders at Praise Christian Center say they will not back down.

Fed up with what they allege is discrimination, church leaders are

filing a lawsuit against the city.

The goal is to get back in to the sanctuary they were kicked out

of last December without having to adhere to the conditions set by

the Planning Commission. But the fight now goes far beyond that,

Pastor Derek Annunciation said.

“We have to do it,” he said, “We have to stand up for what’s

right. It’s not even about Praise Christian anymore -- it’s about

standing up for liberty.”

City leaders deny any charges of discrimination.

“We treat all places of public assembly the same,” said Councilman

Peter Green, a former Benedictian priest.

Since being kicked out of an old warehouse on the corner of

Goldenwest Street and Ellis Avenue by the fire department,

Annunciation says, they have tried to comply with the city’s demands

-- but there always seem to be more.

The Planning Commission in September granted the church a

conditional use permit, but required that several upgrades be made to

the building.

Annunciation claims the upgrades are not necessary and decided to

file the lawsuit after the City Council denied his appeal of the

Planning Commission decision last week.

The battle began last December, when fire marshals ordered the

congregation to stop meeting in the building because it did not meet

safety codes. So, the congregation began meeting outside on the lawn

of the building each Sunday.

Huntington Beach Fire Chief Michael Dolder said there is nothing

discriminatory about what the fire department did. The church, he

said, simply moved into the building without securing any of the

proper permits.

“They just entered the building. No one knew about it,” he said.

“They basically didn’t get the use authorized.”

The building the church occupies is not zoned for assembly

purposes -- it was formerly a warehouse, Dolder said. That is why new

permits for the building were required.

The church has been told what needs to done, Dolder said.

“They failed to act. They kept worshipping there,” he said.

While City Council members weren’t surprised to hear that

Annunciation is planning on filing a lawsuit, they do feel that it

isn’t the best course of action.

“He’d be better off getting the landlord, who is sympathetic to

his cause, to put in the requirements,” Councilman Ralph Bauer said.

The appeal cost the church money, and filing a lawsuit will only

cost more money, Bauer said.

“He’d be better served to comply,” Bauer said. “Getting mad at us

doesn’t solve the problem. He needs to get good legal advice to make

sure that he has a case.”

The church won’t receive any special treatment, Bauer said.

“Nobody should get any benefits that no one else gets,” he said.

“We have restrictions for a number of reasons -- it’s called public

safety.”

Fellow Surf City pastors empathize with Praise Christian leaders,

but said they have all had to comply with regulations.

“Every church has to file for a conditional use permit, which then

requires, in most cases, some upfront money and filling out a lot of

forms and a lot of bureaucracy,” said Steve Purdue, pastor of

Coastland Foursquare Church in Huntington Beach. “The city has every

right of requiring any entity to comply with codes.”

Purdue said he thought the city should make more of an effort to

work with churches to solve zoning problems.

“The fees can be excessive. That’s the thing -- [costs] become

prohibitive,” Purdue said.

Complaints of a difficult and lengthy permit process are not

limited to church leaders. The city has received similar complaints

from businesses.

The church has already brought the city to court once a few weeks

ago, to ask that misdemeanor criminal charges against Annunciation be

dropped. He was charged for failure to comply with a citation that he

received from the fire department.

Annunciation and his attorney, Alan Leigh Armstrong, contend that

the citation is not valid because the person who wrote it did not

have the authority to do so.

A Dec. 9 hearing has been set in that case.

* JOSE PAUL CORONA covers City Hall and education. He can be

reached at (714) 965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].