A ‘promise’ that won’t be soon forgotten

A historic context of promises not kept for this unprecedented church

expansion of St. Andrew’s Church has been bantered about but not

clarified. We need this statement entered into the public record.

This is the plain truth and my personal testimony.

Twenty-two years ago, during the church’s first huge expansion,

the city accepted volunteers to a committee to work out planning

differences between the church and its community. During this

approval process, the neighbors received, at first, a very large

multi-story tower for the senior minister and a huge parking garage.

This proposal, much like today, was being rushed through City Hall,

despite the repeated objections from its neighbors. After several

months, on Sept. 27, 1982, on the late afternoon of a council vote,

the church, which was supposed to be gaining consensus “of the

neighbors” (sound familiar?), had stuck to its guns and pushed the

city fathers to their knees and carefully counted the council votes

to shove through the St. Andrew’s parking garage and a seven-story,

ocean-view complex. Some time during the late afternoon, St. Andrew’s

leaders had found that they didn’t have the council votes for the

mega church. This made a last-ditch planning revision necessary for

Pastor John Huffman and the leaders of the church. I and Pete

Gendron, as the key committee members and officers of the Cliff Haven

Community Assn., accompanied Huffman to St. Andrew’s, where, behind

closed doors, church officials decided to make the necessary

abbreviation and changes to their plans.

When Huffman and the building heavyweights had pared back the

tower, abandoned the parking garage and reduced the plan to the size

that is today constructed, he presented it to Gendron and me. It was

at this time that he promised, if we let him build this and make this

presentation to the City Council, he would never again expand.

Gendron and I, for Cliff Haven, accepted this promise.

The neighborhood association was simple then and this ad hoc

committee kept no minutes. This is why staff could find no public

record of such a promise, when they were asked by the current

Planning Commission to “check into the making of ‘a promise’” during

the current St. Andrew’s general-plan assault. However, the promise

was common knowledge among the players. These are arguments for the

City Council, but it is important to have this statement in the

Planning Commission package in that this city is on the cusp of a

terrible public approval. The people of this city should know that

this approval could kick open the door for oversized churches and

“under-parked” facilities everywhere, and that general plans are

nothing when it comes to church applicants, and promises made by

powerful church players mean nothing in regard to protection of a

community.

Everyone in that room is now dead except for Huffman, Milan

Dostal, Pete Gendron and me, and I invite Huffman’s testimony on the

floor of City Council to refute these facts. As the commission and

council continue to ask themselves about the issue of genuine trust,

it is important that the applicant be seen as having a record in

regard to obtaining trust. And it is not a record that speaks

positively for the applicant.

* BARBARA ‘CORKI’ RAWLINGS is a resident of Newport Beach and

secretary of the Newport Heights Improvement Assn. She is a former

president of the Cliff Haven Community Assn. PETER GENDRON is a

former resident of Newport Beach and a past president of Cliff Haven

Community Assn.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: This commentary is from a letter from Rawlings

and Gendron to city officials and the Pilot, regarding the proposed

remodeling and expansion on the St. Andrew’s property at 600 St.

Andrews Road.

St. Andrew’s Pastor John Huffman provided the following response

to the “promise” talked about in the letter: “They [the neighbors]

expressed great concern, at the time, that with our purchase and

removal of ten homes along Clay Street to provide the 250 parking

spaces, the church might begin to buy homes across the street. I

assured them there would be absolutely no endeavor by the church to

purchase homes on the other side of Clay Street and to expand in that

direction.”