Church Construction Is Looking Up

Praise the Lord and pass the hammer.

In yet another sign of the impact of rising immigration and a buoyant economy, Southern California is seeing a rebound in the construction of churches and other religious buildings, with spending approaching pre-recession levels.

Last year in Los Angeles County, permits were obtained for nearly $30 million in religious construction projects, according to the Construction Industry Research Board, a Burbank-based research organization. That is the most in the county since 1990, when the region’s economy began to decline.

The spending is not limited to Los Angeles County. Religious groups in Ventura County last year sought permits for nearly $4 million in construction projects, nearly matching the amount spent on religious construction there in 1991.

In Orange County, the turnaround came in 1996, when various denominations spent $9.5 million on new construction--the closest the county had come to double-digit spending on churches since 1992. Spending slipped in 1997, but some major new projects are on line for the future.

Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County, views the religious spending as a signal that people feel more comfortable about the economy and are now more willing--and able--to find money for spiritual needs.

“The economy is doing well,” Kyser said. “You have people feeling confident about their economic situations.”

Not everyone is singing the praises of the increased construction. In some areas, neighbors have objected to church expansion plans, fearing everything from added traffic to loss of wildlife habitat.

The developments do, however, bring substantial economic benefits. Because construction permit figures do not include money spent on repairs and renovation, which could be two to three times the amount spent on new construction, the total outlay could be well over $100 million in Los Angeles County, said Ben Bartolotto, research director of the Construction Industry Research Board.

Moreover, as with any major building activity, church construction has a ripple effect throughout the economy, Bartolotto said, providing an infusion of cash for everything from lumber to pews.

Joe Miller, an architectural engineer from Tulsa, Okla., who monitors church construction trends nationwide, says that he thinks the reasons for the building increase go beyond the economy.

“Church construction is really on the rise all over the country,” said Miller, whose World Wide Web site, Church Construction Connection, serves as a forum and information clearinghouse for churches involved in construction projects.

“Even in small towns, it’s surprising to see how many [church groups] are building.”

Miller, whose master’s thesis focused on church construction, attributed the building boom not only to the current economic uptick, but also to what he sees as “a certain resurgence of spirituality and faith in Christ that is drawing people in and creating this need.”

Not all the new construction is by Christians, however. One of the largest single recent religious projects is the $7-million razing and revival of Kehillat Israel, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Pacific Palisades.

Begun in 1996 and completed last September, the two-story temple is now better able to accommodate the additional 400 families--including many interfaith couples--who have joined the congregation over the past 10 years, said Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben.

And in the region’s Muslim community, continued immigration has led to new growth, although it is more difficult to measure through brick and mortar, according to Shabbir Mansuri, director of the Council on Islamic Education in Fountain Valley.

“We have a large number of [new] masjids, but a small number that were constructed from scratch,” said Mansuri, noting that there are now more than 50 Islamic centers or mosques in Southern California.

“We have established masjids in existing buildings. We have warehouses, banks--all kinds of property has been converted.”

The impact of immigration can be seen in many different denominations, measured by an influx of the faithful that has left some houses of worship overflowing.

“We probably have 8,500 people for Sunday Mass,” said Father Tom Rush of Mary Immaculate Church in Pacoima, which last month completed a $3.2-million renovation and expansion of its church and elementary school. “We’ve had people standing outside.

“We have many people who have recently arrived” in Los Angeles, added Rush, who oversees Mass for 10 services each Sunday--seven in Spanish and three in English. “We have our core population, [but] where we have had the real growth is in some of the newer immigrants.”

The Mary Immaculate project is one of five initiated in 1997 in Los Angeles valued at more than $1 million each, according to research board figures. Four of the five are in the San Fernando Valley.

The two most expensive--Mary Immaculate’s project and work on a $3.3-million student center near UCLA--were undertaken by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest archdiocese in the nation.

“We’re looking to meet the needs of a growing population,” said Father Gregory Coiro, spokesman for the 4-million member archdiocese.

In cities such as Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, churches have closed as parishioners have moved to the suburbs, Coiro said. But in Los Angeles, “we have growing congregations and church buildings that are filled.”

One major construction project that has yet to show up in the building permits paper trail is the mammoth $50-million Roman Catholic cathedral planned for downtown Los Angeles.

That and a $50-million construction project planned by West Angeles Church of God in Christ in South Los Angeles, will dwarf the amount spent on religious buildings in recent years.

“Office buildings in the ‘80s were on that scale,” Bartolotto said. “In terms of religion, I can’t think of anything else that big [in Los Angeles County] going back probably decades.”

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Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said the archdiocese hopes to finalize all cathedral designs by March 31 and start construction in September or October.

Plans for Our Lady of the Angels cathedral are moving ahead despite a lawsuit filed late last year by Native Americans who fear that there could be an ancient graveyard beneath the future cathedral property.

Coiro said the archdiocese is working with the Native Americans and still hopes to be able to dedicate the new cathedral on Sept. 4, 2000, in time for Christianity’s third millennium.

In Orange County, the Yorba Linda Friends Church, the fastest-growing and largest Quaker congregation in the country, hopes to break ground in 1999 on an 80,000-square-foot, 2,800-seat sanctuary.

“We’re growing at about 24% a year,” said Tom Babnick, business administrator and an associate pastor at the church.

The Friends Church expansion is one of those that has run into opposition from neighbors. “I think the changes proposed are going to be disruptive, not just to the area but to our way of life,” Yorba Linda resident Rhys Morgan said at a community meeting last year on the plans for the Friends Church.

Babnick, in a recent interview, said the church has gone out of its way to address neighbors’ concerns, noting that it has purchased additional property to create a landscape strip and a horse riding trail to mask a parking structure.

Officials of the Friends Church hope such accommodations will allow them to avoid delays in their construction.

Last September, the Cypress City Council rejected the Zion Central Presbyterian Church’s request to expand its facility on Lincoln Avenue, saying it was incompatible with redevelopment plans for the area.

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Pastor Tae Won Kang said his growing church had wanted to use leased space along the avenue for an office and storage.

But construction projects need not necessarily make adversaries of those sharing the same space.

Rabbi Reuben described the Kehillat Israel project as “an energizing, community-building experience.”

Noting that the synagogue sought input from neighbors before construction began, Reuben added:

“There’s a need for religious institutions to work with the community and to recognize that a church or synagogue is also, inherently, a civic building, not just a private place of worship for a particular denomination.”