One side is happy. The other side, well, not so much. It\u2019s a case where shades of gray are hard to find. That\u2019s the fallout following a decision by Mayor Jerry Sanders last month to endorse a continued conditional-use permit issued to the Rock Church megachurch in Liberty Station in 2004. Sanders rejected a recommendation by the San Diego County Grand Jury that opined the 3,500-seat church did not belong in Liberty Station primarily because of traffic and parking concerns and incompatibility with local land-use plans. The grand jury recommended that the city suspend the Rock Church\u2019s permit \u2014 a recommendation that was subsequently supported by a majority of the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) in July. The grand jury recommendation, if it had been supported by Sanders, could have meant canceling the five services the church schedules every Sunday for its 12,000-plus members, as well as turning away the 400-plus students from pre-kindergarden to high school who attend the Rock Church Academy during the week, while the city reviewed whether the church\u2019s permit was mistakenly issued in the first place, as detractors claim. “We\u2019re very pleased, but not surprised, with the city\u2019s response to the grand jury report,” said Mark Stevens, the church\u2019s chief operating officer, in a mass email to congregation members following the mayor\u2019s response. Others were clearly unhappy with Sanders\u2019 decision. “It\u2019s unfortunate. It\u2019s really unpleasant for [the church\u2019s neighbors],” said Bonnie Mann, who lives near the church and is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Corky McMillin Companies, developer of the 349 homes at Liberty Station. The lawsuit alleges information about the Rock Church and its potential impacts was concealed from prospective homebuyers during the time the original permit was approved. The grand jury in May made a finding that the church was not a compatible land use because the Liberty Station Precise Plan called for the area surrounding the church to be devoted to educational uses. In addition, the grand jury report states, “Traffic congestion, parking problems, [and] the need for a street closure \u2026 are directly related to a church not being compatible for the Liberty Station area.” But in an Aug. 22 letter to Robert J. Trentacosta, presiding judge of the San Diego Superior Court, Sanders said he disagreed with the grand jury, saying its recommendations were “not warranted or reasonable.” Sanders said the area\u2019s precise plan is only a “policy document to guide redevelopment at Liberty Station” and pointed out that a church is allowable with a conditional-use permit under the site\u2019s commercial zone. He also said church activities were not necessarily the cause of traffic congestion, street closures and parking problems on Sundays. “[T]here are many other commercial, retail, park and special-event uses, which also typically are operating at Liberty Station during this timeframe,” Sanders states in his letter. Mann disagreed. “The mayor says a church is appropriate,” she said. “But this is no typical church. This is clearly a megachurch.” Most churches with large congregations have a much larger footprint, are located in an outlying area and control their own parking \u2014 characteristics the Rock Church lacks, Mann said. “The church is too big for this confined area,” she said. Even though the church prevailed, the divisive scenario is a bit of a wake-up call, Stevens acknowledged in his email to church members. “[T]he situation is a reminder that we need to continue to uphold the standards we have set for our staff and congregation to be good neighbors,” he said. Geoff Page, who chairs the Peninsula Community Planning Board, said there are no plans to formally respond to the mayor\u2019s decision, although that could change.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One side is happy. The other side, well, not so much. It\u2019s a case where shades of gray are hard to find. That\u2019s the fallout following a decision by Mayor Jerry Sanders last month to endorse a continued conditional-use permit issued to the Rock Church megachurch in Liberty Station in 2004. Sanders rejected a recommendation […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Mayor rejects grand jury\u2019s prod to yank Rock Church permit","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}