Garden Grove moves forward with plan to build townhomes on Baptist church site
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A fully built out city with little room to grow, Garden Grove is turning toward a weedy church lot as the future site of 26 market-rate townhomes.
On Tuesday, the Garden Grove City Council moved forward unanimously on approving zoning and other changes needed to bring the Brandywine Homes project closer to construction on the site of Grace Baptist Church.
A staple of Garden Grove’s spiritual life since the 1960s, the church has seen a decline and exodus of its congregation in recent years, as some members have moved to Texas and Tennessee, leaving the church with about 30 active members.
Even though it has been approached by other developers to sell the entire property, Grace Baptist Church wants to continue its ministry and modernize its sanctuary.
The church sees parting with a nearly 2-acre back lot as the best path toward achieving both.
“This project is going to be good for the community, as well as the church,” Pastor Neal Pafford told the City Council. “It’s dilapidated. It needs help, and with that, we hope to bring in new families and continue to grow and to serve the community.”
An apartment home project at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in La Habra is the first of several housing developments the Diocese of Orange is planning in the county.
Pafford mentioned the lot is mostly unused — save for cars sometimes seen spinning around doing doughnuts. An existing church storage building will be demolished to accommodate the subdivision.
The two-story Craftsman-style townhomes will offer two-to-four bedroom floor plans.
“We don’t have enough entry-level home ownership opportunities,” said Elizabeth Hansburg, executive director of People for Housing OC, told council members. “When young people are looking to buy their first home, they usually are looking at townhomes or condos. The days of folks buying a single-family home as their first housing unit or first home ownership opportunity, I’m afraid that those days have passed.”
The project faced initial objections from nearby residents when it went before the city’s planning commission, but no speakers opposed it during Tuesday’s council meeting.
Council members voted to ensure that construction would mitigate dust and noise concerns.
“You’ve addressed our concerns,” Spencer Adamson, a homeowner who lives next to the church, told the council. “We’re not opposed to this project at all. We’re thinking it’ll be a fine addition to the neighborhood.’
By not seeking a density bonus, Councilman George Brietigam also claimed the church could have considered many more units with less parking at a higher sales price, but didn’t.
“It’s a blessing that the church is going that extra mile for the community,” he said. “Twenty-six units — it’s fully parked — is not such a bad thing, especially on a lot.”
“I’m going to have to find somewhere else to go do my doughnuts,” Brietigam quipped.
The project would put 44 affordable housing units and a spiritual center on the site of the church in Laguna Beach.
Grace Baptist Church is the latest Orange County congregation to consider housing.
The Diocese of Orange won approval from the La Habra City Council to build 21 apartment homes on an unused grass field behind its Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
Redevelopment plans have been recently submitted to Laguna Beach to transform the Neighborhood Congregational Church into 44 units of affordable housing while building a new spiritual center on-site.
Councilwoman Ariana Arestegui noted the importance of Garden Grove taking a diversified approach to housing, one that the Brandywine Homes project will contribute to.
“It’s important for us, when we think about housing, that we also consider those first-time home buyers and allowing young people to have the opportunity to enter into home ownership,” she said. “This is exactly the type of project that would create those opportunities.”
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