Sides plan for vote’s aftermath

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Leading in to tonight’s City Council vote on the

controversial expansion plans at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church,

the Daily Pilot is taking a closer look at the debate. We will

explore the plans, the people involved and the history that has the

community divided so dramatically.

Prayer and litigation.

That’s what’s on the minds of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

members and neighborhood residents as they prepare for tonight’s

hearing on the church’s controversial expansion plan.

Both sides are hoping the council vote will be in their favor, but

they’ve also thought about what they’ll do if it’s not.

“I don’t like to get the cart before the horse in these matters,”

church neighbor and expansion opponent Don Krotee said. “However,

there are several neighbors who have identified funds for lawsuits

and [a] referendum and, depending on how far-reaching the decision

is, for recall.”

Since December 2002, St. Andrew’s officials have been petitioning

the city to allow an addition to the church. The proposal for a youth

and family center with a gymnasium and parking has been whittled down

to 21,741 square feet and has been approved by the planning

commission with a list of 82 conditions.

Neighbors oppose the expansion, which they say will worsen traffic

and parking problems and create more noise than their residential

area should have to handle.

The council is expected to make a final decision on the church

project tonight, but it won’t necessarily settle the issue.

Church members have been advised not to pray for council approval,

but to ask that God’s will be done, said Ken Williams, the church’s

building committee chairman. They’ll keep asking for spiritual

guidance if the council rejects the project.

“We have no next steps except to pray,” he said.

Those fighting the church expansion have been exploring more

secular solutions. They’ve already checked the possibilities of

getting a referendum on the ballot, filing a lawsuit to challenge the

environmental report on the project and circulating petitions to

recall council members who vote for the expansion plan.

To place a referendum on the ballot, residents would need

petitions signed by nearly 6,100 voters registered in the city --

representing 10% of the 60,961 registered Newport Beach voters as of

the most recent report to the secretary of state.

If a referendum effort qualified, it would go on the November 2006

ballot, and approval of the church project would be suspended until

then, said Robert Coldren, a church neighbor and attorney.

Neighbors also have considered a lawsuit that would claim the

environmental report on the project is inaccurate and does not

adequately address the burden of traffic on the area, Coldren said.

Unfortunately, Krotee said, such a lawsuit “almost never stops a

project -- it just delays it.”

However the council votes tonight, the vote may result in

political fallout in the 2006 council elections or sooner.

Councilman Don Webb, who represents a council district that

includes the church and some of the neighbors, is up for reelection

in 2006, and neighbors may see to it that he’s opposed.

“I’ve had people in both communities [say], ‘If Don Webb passes

22,000 square feet in my neighborhood or in any other neighborhood in

the city, I will borrow money to run a candidate against him,’”

Krotee said.

Webb said people are always upset when a council decision doesn’t

go their way, but council members can’t be swayed by such

considerations.

“I’m still going to do everything I can to make what I feel is the

best decision for the citizens of Newport Beach, not just one group,”

Webb said.

“If they don’t vote for me, they don’t vote for me.”

Others on the council have less to fear.

Mayor John Heffernan and Councilman Tod Ridgeway are termed out,

in 2008 and 2006, respectively.

They have not said which way they plan to vote, but the councilmen

said the threat of recall won’t change how they decide on the

expansion.

“I’m bullet-proof. They can do what they want with me,” Ridgeway

said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].