KIWA Battles Church Expansion

Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) is battling a local church, Oriental Mission Church (OMC) that is destroying housing for a parkling lot. In early September, the church sent out a public hearing notice to area residents that they are applying for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to turn almost an entire block of Residential (R3-1) zoned land into a lot for the church.

KIWA sees this destruction as a direct attack on the neighborhood for a major institution like the 3000-6000 congregation OMC to buy up residential land of the neighborhood, evict neighbors who lived in the apartments on the land and turn the area into a private parking lot that the church will only fully use once a week.  The parking lot construction would demolish 2 rent-controlled apartments. Over 40 families have been evicted, suffered. Their neighbors and local businesses who depend heavily on local residents as customer base have also been affected.

Three of the parking lots that already sits on this residential block that they received CUP’s for in 1996, is still being used to park cars even though the permits for use expired 3 years ago.

KIWA has been knocking on doors and talking 100 residents. They have gathered around 80 signatures in support letters asking the City to deny this CUP.  KIWA has also been meeting with neighborhood gorups and are planning o organize for hearings. KIWA’s demands are:

1. To replace 20+units of housing that they took out by demolishing two apartments;

2. Preserve and repopulate the two emptied out apartments with 23 units of housing;

3. Reconsider and abandon their current parking lot plan in the residential zoned area.