Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCUP 85B; Pilgrim Congregational Church; Conditional Use Permit (CUP) (39)PILGRIM UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST An Open, Affirming and Inclusive Congregation with a Liberal Theology and a Commitment to Social Justice WILMA OWENS MODERATOR DANA WHITSON VICE-MODERATOR JERALD STINSON PASTOR GORDON BAKER PASTOR EMERITUS PAT ALLEN CHURCH ADMINISTRATOR KAY GAULT DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN'S MINISTRIES JILL THURLOW DIRECTOR OF YOUTH MINISTRIES 8 FACILITIES COORDINATOR TOM LAURENCE CHOIR DIRECTOR ANN ALLEN DIRECTOR OF PILGRIM CHILDREN'S CENTER June 16,1997 Bill Compas City of Carlsbad 2075 Las Palmas Drive Carlsbad, CA 92009 Dear Mr. Compas: As you are no doubt aware, on July 2nd, the Planning Commission will consider the renewal of Pilgrim United Church of Christ's Condi- tional Use Permit. We have been informed by Anne Hysong of the Planning Department that she will be recommending to the Commission that we be forced to build a concrete wall to sepa- rate our Children's Center from the property of one of our neigh- bors, Mr. Dwight Vallely. Let me share some background information on this issue with you. 1- 2- Has Mr. Vallelv comdained about the noise over a long period of time? No! He has lived in his house on Charleen Circle for many years, but in fact the first conversation I ever had with him about any possible noise problem came last Fall, AFTER HE HAD ALREADY GONE TO CITY HALL TO INQUIRE ABOUT MAKING A COMPLAINT. What hamened when Mr. Vallelv first complained to Pilarim Church about the noise? We immediately arranged for a meeting with him on September 12, 1996. We took his com- plaint very seriously and had present from the church at that meeting: Four church officers: Our Church Moderator/President (an adminis- trator at Palomar College) Our Vice-Moderator (Assistant City Manager for Oceanside) The Chairperson of our Board of Trustees (Carlsbad Assistant City Engineer) Our Trustees Liaison to the Children's Center (a social worker) Three staff members: Our Minister Our Facilities Coordinator The Director of our Children's Center 2020 Chestnut Avenue, Carlsbad, California 92008 Phone: (760)729-6311 Fax: (760)729-1562 9 Taped Message: (760)729-9540 Children's Center: (760)729-4464 E-Mail: pilgrimucc@aol.com Internet Web Site: http://members.aol.com/pilgrimucc PILGRIM UNITED CHURCH OF CHWST 6/16/97 - P- 2 Mr. Vallely was encouraged to bring with him other neighbors who shared his concerns, but no one else showed up. At this meeting, we listened to all of his concerns and a four-page memo was devel- oped listing his concerns and the actions the church would take to respond to those concerns. 3- What steps did the church take to respond to Mr. Vallely's complaints? Here are some examples: We had our gardener change the times when he worked on the grounds at the Church and the Children's Center. This was an inconvenience for him and it meant that he was forced to actually work inside the fenced area at the Children's Center when there were many children present. This is, of course, dangerous and makes it difficult for the teachers. He had previously started at 7:OO a.m. when there were fewer children present, but because of Mr. Vallely's complaints he now starts later in the morning. He also is not using his blowing equipment behind the Center at all. We changed the times for the monthly cleaning of the floors in the Children's Cen- ter. Again this has created considerable inconvenience for us. We also have di- rected the custodian, the floor cleaners and the carpet cleaners to avoid using loud radios while they work. We asked those who clean the floors to keep the doors closed as much as that is possible, but they have a problem with fumes if they keep all the doors closed. Our custodian who cleans the building each evening does not listen to an amplified .radio; instead he uses a radio with headphones. We have also arranged for him to clean the building as early as possible each night after the use of the building has ended. Sometimes when church meetings are held in the evenings, we hire baby-sitters to watch the children of our church members. They do so in our nursery which is adja- cent to the Children's Center, and in the past, the children have often played on the Children's Center playground equipment while their parents attended the van- ous meetings. Due to Mr. Vallely's complaints, we have asked the baby-sitten to keep the children inside in the evening so that they will not disturb the Vallelys. 0 Since Mr. Vallely first complained to us, we have not scheduled any work project or special activities in the early morning or evening hours. 4- Has Mr. Vallely cooperated with the Church in twina to imwove this situation? No! We indicated to him both verbally at that meeting with the church officers and in writing through the memo that followed that meeting, that the key factor in our ability to re- spond to his concerns would be his willingness to let us know when there was noise that had disturbed him. That is the only way we would know if a custodian or cleaning crew r PLGRlM UNITED CHURCH OF CHRET 6116197 - Page 3 had been noisy. We asked him to specifically call the church’s Facilities Coordinator. if it was after hours, he was asked to leave a message on her voice-mail. Then she would immediately begin to track down who was responsible for the noise and find ways of preventing such noise in the future. We asked Mr. Vallely not to try to contact the indi- viduals making the noise but rather to let our Facilities Coordinator deal with the prob- lem. He agreed to this. BUT HE HAS NOT ONCE CALLED US SINCE THAT MEETING ON SEP- TEMBER 1 Zth! Thus we assumed that our efforts to cut back on noise had been success- ful and that everything was going well. 5- What about additional contact with Mr. Vallelv? There was no contact whatsoever between September 12,1996 and January 6,1997. During that time, he made no men- tion of any more noise. Then on January bth, Mr. Vallely wrote to me expressing his ap preciation for the September 12th meeting and his appreciation of our “receptiveness” to his concerns. He asked if another meeting could be scheduled “so’that we might bring this issue to a close.” I arranged for such a meeting to be held on February 6th and Mr. Vallely said that date would work for him. Then he called the church office and left a message that that date was no longer a good one for him and that he would let us know about rescheduling the meeting. What we later learned was that he had al- ready gone again to the city to complain, indicating that we weren’t cooperating with him in seeking to hear his concerns. Once I learned from the Planning Department that he had indeed been back in touch with them, I again wrote to Mr. Vallely on March 19th expressing my surprise about his attitude (since he had previously written to us thanking us for our receptiveness to his concerns) and indicating to him that our officers would be glad to meet with him at any time to talk about his concerns. He never responded to that letter. I am personally convinced that Mr. Vallely had only one objective from the beginning and that was to force the church into building a wall alongside his property. That was all that really mattered to him from the beginning and he did not want to meet with us again. 6- What sDecifically is the noise that bothers Mr. Vallelv? He said that sometimes it is the noise that the children make during the daytime. He said that sometimes it is noise that comes from workers cleaning the building in the evening. He said that the adult groups which use that building in the evenings (such as Narcotics Anonymous) have not made any noise and have not caused any problems. He said that there is some noise from the semi-yearly social events of the Samoan-language congregation that meets at Pilgrim Church but that noise does not bother him: he indicated in fact that he enjoyed their music. 7- Why does the church resist buildina a wall? In the first place, we don’t think it will make much difference for the Vallelys. When they remodeled their home, they chose to put their building addition within a few feet of the Children’s Center building. They put their bedroom on the second floor right next to the Children’s Center. A block wall fence will not reach up high enough to stop noise from reaching that bedroom. Thus it will be a significant waste of money on our part, and we suspect Mr. Vallely will be back to complain again soon because the wall will not have helped at all. The problem came with his remodeling, and a wall won’t fix that. Secondly, the cost of building a wall will be considerable. And once we build a wall on our property in response to one neighbor’s concerns, we fear that other neighbors may decide they would like such a wall as well, and soon we will have to completely en- close our Children’s Center. That would be terribly expensive and the only way we can afford to do that is to increase tuition at the Children’s Center, or to eliminate our scholarship program or possibly eliminate this important outreach to the community. 8- What is sDecial about Pilarim Children’s Center? 0 Carlsbad desperately needs child care and Pilgrim United Church of Christ has op- erated its Children’s Center for 23 years as a community outreach. The center is open from 7:OO a.m to 6:oO p.m. each day to serve Carlsbad families. We have 125 children enrolled at the Center. 0 Pilgrim Children’s Center is a deliberately multiiracial, multi-cultural and multi-faith center. It is NOT an evangelism effort of the church. There is no teaching of doctrine or dogma. We run the Center solely as an outreach effort. We have special pro- grams for handicapped children and we work closely with Carlsbad High School in introducing some of the high school students to the field of early childhood educa- tion. We are one of only two child care facilities in Carlsbad to have been honored with accreditation from the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs. 0 Perhaps the most unique thing about Pilgrim Children’s Center is its scholarship pro- gram. Pilgrim United Church of Christ does not make profit off this center. We do not run it to make money! Instead the profit the Center makes goes back into the Cen- ter to provide a large scholarship fund. We provide at least $35,000 a year in schol- arships so that low-income working families can place their children in our highly rated Center. I know of no other child care center in Carlsbad, or anywhere else around here, that has that kind of extensive scholarship program. IF WE ARE FORCED TO BUILD THIS WALL, WE MAY HAVE TO NOTIFY SOME OF THE LOW INCOME FAMILIES ARSHIPS FROM US. Instead of scholarships, we will have to pay for a wall that will not do any good at all. WHO HAVE CHILDREN AT OUR CENTER THAT THEY CAN LONGER COUNT ON SCHOL- In conclusion, let me affirm that with the exception of Gordon and Betty Baker who are strong advocates of Pilgrim Children’s Center, every neighbor who lives adjacent to Pilgrim Chil- dren’s Center, moved in AFTER THE CENTER WAS ALREADY IN OPERATION. They all chose to live next.door to a child care facility. We are in fact now open fewer hours than we were at the beginning, and we have fewer children on the site each day than we have had during cer- tain years in the past. Mr. Vallely knew he moving next door to a Children’s Center and surely .-. PILGRIM UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST SI16197 - Pe 5 he knew that he would hear the sounds of children from that Center. And not only did he know that, but his own daughteL was a student at the Children's Center and as a parent, he was active and supportive of the Center during that time. Unfortunately Mr. Vallely's wife has a medical condition which makes it difficult for her to sleep. I imagine that living near any school would be a problem for her. But then they chose to remodel their home and move their living space even closer to the Children's Center. It was inevitable that they would therefore hear more noise. I would urge the Planning Commission, in considering our Conditional Use Permit, to look at Pilgrim Church's long record of community service. We run a homeless shelter program. We are the site for the federal food commodity program each month. We have a unique child visitation program that we run in conjunction with Child Protective Services. We have a liter- acy center that for two decades has taught English as a second language. We are the home for several 1 2-step groups: Alcoholics Anonymous, AIAnon, Narcotics Anonymous, and NarA- non. Being Alive, an AIDS organization is headquartered at our Church. And Pilgrim Children's Center is a vital part of this community service that we provide. Please don't force us to punish our low-income parents, or close our Center, because of one irate neighbor whose remodeling project caused him to want us to build a wall to separate his property from our Children's Center. That's just not fair. We urge you to approve our CUP as it is, and allow us to continue serving the families of Carlsbad and their children. Sincerely, / Ju+- Rev. Jerald M. Stinson