Planning Commissions Approves Church Expansion without Parking

Blair Clarkson
Staff Writer

March 5 -- After a lengthy debate Wednesday night, the Planning Commission unanimously approved a church's request to expand its facility, while removing, instead of adding, parking spaces.

The proposal and parking variance sought by the Unitarian Universalist Community Church calls for the remodeling of an 8,000-square foot sanctuary building on the corner of Arizona Avenue and 18th Street and construction of a 1,893-square foot, two-story addition to an adjacent building at 1253 17th St.

Several commissioners questioned the expansion design, which will eliminate three existing parking spaces on the property, and mandated that the church provide some type of traffic mitigation plan to account for the lack of 16 required on-site parking spaces.

"I'm concerned about the impact of increased cars on the neighborhood," Commissioner Gwynne Pugh said. "I believe some extra steps need to be taken" to mitigate the possible rise in traffic.

Much of the commission's deliberation centered on the church's current off-site parking agreement with the UCLA-Santa Monica Hospital, which allows the church access to its lot on 16th and Arizona on Sunday mornings.

Although the church has maintained an informal agreement with the hospital for more than 20 years and provides an attendant to monitor the lot, commissioners worried that without a written contract there was no guarantee the necessary spaces would be available.

"We do want you to stay in the City," said Pugh of the altruistic church, which has contributed time and resources to various community outreach programs such as Head Start, the Westside Food Bank and Step Up on Second. "But we need to be realistic" about a traffic mitigation plan.

Debate also focused on the possible growth of the congregation to fill the larger structure and the increased use of new meeting rooms and offices proposed in the expansion plan, which could bring cars into the neighborhood on weeknights.

"How can you keep from growing?" asked Commissioner Barbara Brown. "It seems natural that membership would increase and more groups would use" the improved facilities.

Attempting to allay such concerns, Barbara Kernochan, chair of the church building committee, explained that the congregation does not want to grow and does not anticipate adding weekday programs.

"We recognize that Santa Monica is a developed town," she said, "and we're not looking to make it any more dense."

"But our buildings are old," she added, noting that children are forced to study in cramped classrooms packed with copiers and filing cabinets. Also, the facility lacks an adequate nursery and yard area, according to Kernochan.

"We want children to have access to secure outdoor space," she said.

To appease the commission’s concerns, church officials agreed to implement a "Good Neighbor Program" that will distribute materials to its members about transportation options and directions to the off-site lot, encourage carpooling, examine van and shuttle services, provide bike racks and conduct community meetings to review parking issues.

The church also agreed to begin its outdoor activities at 10 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. on Sunday mornings at the request of neighbors looking to sleep in.

Commissioner Julie Lopez Dad recognized that the commission had turned down similar parking variances in the past, but that this one "is different from others we've seen" because of the inclusive nature of the church, which has embraced the City for 75 years.

"The church has nurtured the community for years," implored resident Vivian Rothstein. "It's time the community nurtured the church."

Prior to hearing the staff report on the proposed expansion and approving the variance, Commissioners Jay Johnson and Darrell Clarke declared, in the interest of full disclosure, that they had both been married in the Unitarian church.

In other business, the commission denied resident John Oursland's appeal of the Architectural Review Board's approval of plans for a three-story, 14-unit apartment complex on the vacant lot at 1751 Appian Way.