THE CHURCH
BUILDING PROJECT
(2nd
Semester Report)
Dear members of the Building Project,
Dear Faithful of the Holy Trinity
Romanian Orthodox Church,
In the last issue
of „The Christian Life”, the quarterly magazine of the Holy Trinity Romanian
Orthodox Church, Los Angeles, California, in the article called: „Sunland Property
– Ready to start Building at the beginning of May 2005” we
have expressed the “conviction” that “the physical work” on our new
Church Property will start, immediately after 2005 Orthodox Easter, which meant
that sometimes at the beginning of June 2005 we would’ve start “the grading”.
Having such a “timeline” established, Fr.
Constantin, the civil engineer, and the architects were working diligently to
obtain the “grading and architectural permits” (ALL
THE PLANS BEING ALREADY APPROVED); When we made the
required “applications”, the Los Angeles Building Department informed us that
the Church has to take care of some 15 “clearances”, as follows:
While the civil
engineer and the parish office were working to expidiently resolve the stated
„clearances”, at the beginning of June 2005, we found out that Mr. Jon Perica –
The L.A. City Zoning Administrator retired in April, and the new Zonig
Administrator, Mr. Daniel Green is contesting the validity of the CUP
(Conditional Use Permit) of 1988, therefore he „put-on-hold” the whole project.
The „action” of the
new Zoning Administrator „project-on-hold” was operated into the Building Department
Systems (at both locations: Los Angeles and Van Nuys), therefore the civil
engineer could not go forth with the above-stated „15 clearances”, as no
officials will accept any paper-work for action, unless the Zoning
Administrator is chanding into the „Systems” the Church’s CUP status from
„expired” to „valid”.
For the last 4
months, the church had an up-hill battle.
It took the parish
office some 2 weeks of „work-and-correspondence” with the new Zoning
Administrator, to convince him that „a sign was
installed and uninteruptedly maintained” on the property, as per the
CUP requirments, and therefore the CUP is valid. On June 13, 2005, the
Zoning Administrator e-mailed our office the news that „It appears from your extensive documentation that your signage
meets the requirements of the Code and that the time in which you may utilize
the grant has not expired”.
Three days later,
on June 16, 2005 the Zoning Administrator e-mailed our Architect Mr. Garo
Minassian the following request: „In order to obtain the
Zoning Administrator clearance, you will need to submit plans for us to stamp
that are consistent with the plans Mr. Perica saw in 1988. We stamp and
sign 3 sets, keeping one, and returning the other two to you for use at plan
check. We also need the clearance summary worksheet created by the plan
checker. When we're stamping the plans, we can add a note indicating the
grant is still alive based upon the posting of signs”.
Following his instructions, the Architect
presented the ZA (Zoning Administrator’s office) with the 3 sets of requested
Architectural Plans for reviewing and approval.
The ZA would not review the stated plans,
unless the plans are accompanied by the “landscaping and irrigation” plans
(condition #5).
Therefore, helped by the architect and the
civil engineer, the parish office hired the “Larry Tison Landscaping Co.”
to draw the landscaping plans.
Even then, the ZA would not give its approval,
invoking conditions #5 and #15, which states: “Landscape plans to be
submitted to the District Council Office for review and to the Office of Zoning
Administration for approval”; and “All plans shall be
submitted to the District Council office for review and to the Office of Zoning
Administration for approval” (respectively).
In following this procedure, the Architect Garo
Minassian and Fr. Constantin Alecse scheduled an appointment with the District
Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, for July 19, 2005
To our surprise, on July 18, 2005 the architect
was called by the councilwoman’s office, informing us that, due to the L.A.
re-districting process of 2-3 years ago, our new church property in Sunland is
located in councilman Mr.
Alex Padilla’s District (District #7), therefore an appointment has to be scheduled
with councilman Padilla’s office.
After many attempts, by our architect and the
parish office, to reach Mr. Padilla’s Office to schedule an appointment (to
make the required architectural presentation), we were finally successful to
set an appointment for August 2, 2005. Thus, architect Garo Minassian,
accompanied by Fr. Constantin, met, on August 2, with 2 representatives from
the councilman’s office: Mr. Dan Rosales, Jr. (district director), and Mr.
Khaim Morton (field deputy).
The meeting was fruitful (we thought…), and we
have been assured that our church’s building project will be fully supported by
Alex Padilla’s office.
We were told that, after the councilman himself
will review our church’s architectural, landscaping and irrigation plans, a
letter of support (that’s all we need from the councilman’s office) will be
written by councilman Padilla’s office to the Zoning Administrator’s
Office.
After a month-and-a-half of daily telephone
calls, voice messages and e-mails (sent to the 2 representatives of the district
councilman’s office, we have met with), on September 12, 2005, Mr. Khaim Morton
(the field deputy) answered our calls, telling us that “the letter is in the
making”, from the councilman’s office to the Zoning Administrator, but we have
to contact the president of the Shadow Hills Neighbor’s Council (Mary Anne
Guyer), to schedule an appointment with the Neighbor’s Council, to make a
presentation of our church’s overall project to the representatives of the
Shadow Hills community.
Having the unpleasant experience of 5 public
hearings (which lasted more than one year, 1987-1988), we have tried to
convince the councilman’s representatives that, there is no need for a meeting
of our church representatives with the Neighbor’s Council representatives,
because our Church Building Project was approved in 1988, with a CUP’S 21
Conditions.
During September 20 - December 5, 2005, the
councilman’s field deputy, informed us (on 4 occasions in telephone
conversations) that they will issue a letter of support to us, on the condition
that our church representatives will meet with the Neighbor’s Council
representatives. Ultimately, we had no choice but to agree with this
requirement, with the understanding that the councilman’s office gives us
the letter first, then we will schedule the required meeting with the
Neighbor’s Council.
As of today, December 5, 2005, we did not
receive the councilman’s office promised letter, and were unsuccessful to reach
by phone either the district director or the field deputy of councilman Alex
Padilla’s Office.
As it stands, NOW, as we draw closer to the end
of the year 2005, we are still fighting an up-hill battle with the L.A. City
officials to obtain the “permits” to start our building project’s physical
work. It looks to us, on one hand, that our community is “discriminated
on religious grounds”, and - on the other - “the economic factor” is
playing a major role in this process (it is the interpretation of our church
faithful that the city officials believe that, through the hardship imposed on
us, the church will get discouraged, give-up its project, and a developer will
develop the 8 acres piece of property, bringing-in to the city tens or even
hundreds of thousand US Dollars in annual revenues, taxes, etc).
We do assure our community, and the City
Officials, that WE DO NOT GIVE-UP.
No matter how long it will take, we will get the permits, and before long the
Church Building Project will be back on track.
The civil engineer, Mr. George Boghossian has
all the required “paper-work” prepared (for more than 4 months), ready to
submit in order to have the 15 clearances resolved, as soon as the ZA will give
his approval, and the “CUP status changed from “expired” to “active” operated
into the Building and Planning Department Systems.
We will keep-you all informed of the future developments of our Building Project, as soon as the Christmas Holidays and the Epiphany 2006 celebrations will be over.
Respectfully
submitted,
On behalf of the
Building Committee & the Parish,
Fr.
Constantin Alecse, Parish Priest
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