A North Fair Oaks Avenue church that has operated in the neighborhood for more than 50 years could more than triple its size under a proposal headed to the city’s Hearing Officer Wednesday.
Grace Temple Church is seeking a conditional use permit, a certificate of exception and a variance to allow a 2,206-square-foot expansion of its existing religious facility at 1909 N. Fair Oaks Ave., along with two on-site parking lots, according to a Planning and Community Development Department staff report dated Dec. 3.
The church sits on three parcels at Fair Oaks and West Tremont Street in the Fair Oaks/Orange Grove Specific Plan area.
The expansion would convert and reconfigure the existing 1,137-square-foot building for offices, a multipurpose room, kitchen, storage and restrooms, and construct a new 2,343-square-foot sanctuary, for a total church floor area of 3,343 square feet.
To support the project, the church is asking for a conditional use permit to expand the approved floor area of a religious use by more than 10%, as required by the zoning code. The proposal would increase approved floor area by more than 195%.
The church is also asking for a certificate of exception to consolidate three existing parcels — 1909 and 1895 N. Fair Oaks Ave. and 25 W. Tremont St. — into a single 22,673-square-foot lot.
A variance would allow two separate on-site parking lots that require drivers to reenter the public right-of-way on Tremont Street to access all spaces, where city code normally requires all spaces in a parking facility to be reachable without going back into the street.
Staff recommends the hearing officer approve all three requests, subject to conditions, and find the project exempt from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act as an addition to an existing facility.
The property, originally built as a single-family home around 1909, has been used as a church since at least the early 1970s, the report states. A conditional use permit for an expansion was approved in 1989 but never built.
The current application would demolish 137 square feet of the existing sanctuary, reconfigure the remaining space and add the new sanctuary building to the south.
The plans also call for two landscaped parking lots with a total of 15 spaces, exceeding the 14 spaces required for a 112-seat sanctuary under city parking standards.
The site is zoned FGSP-CL-1b (Fair Oaks/Orange Grove Specific Plan – Limited Commercial District 1, Subdistrict “b”) and has a General Plan land-use designation of Low Mixed Use. Staff said the expansion of a long-established religious institution is consistent with policies encouraging diverse, community-serving uses and institutional facilities that support gathering and civic life.
In a prior version of the project, the church sought a variance for two driveways on Tremont Street and a tree removal permit for a protected coast live oak.
After public comments objecting to the tree removal before a scheduled May 7 hearing, the church requested continuances to explore alternatives and ultimately redesigned the project to preserve the tree and dropped the additional driveway request.
The staff report notes that the site’s unusual topography — including a 12-foot grade change between the two southern parcels — and the location of the existing building create constraints.
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