Welcome Mat Is Pulled In for New Korean Church

For nine months, the Rev. John K. Huh, a Korean evangelical pastor, has been seeking the city of Garden Grove’s approval of his plans for construction of a new church.

“They told us we could have a church there. That’s why we bought the property,” said Huh , who wedges his 100 parishioners each week into a shared church in Buena Park. “This will be our first Korean church in Garden Grove, and it’s very important for us.”

Yet every step of the way, Huh said, he has been met with anti-Korean sentiment expressed in public meetings dominated by Anglo residents.

On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to decide on Huh’s proposal, which has become a major controversy in Garden Grove.

Residents have begun a letter-writing campaign against the church proposal, and more than 250 people are expected to attend the City Council meeting.

Racist Sentiments

While local residents deny that race is an issue, Mayor J. Tilman Williams acknowledged that racist sentiments have been expressed by community members.

“I remember at one of the meetings, one of the persons came up, and she said, ‘Well, you know, once you get Koreans in the neighborhood, your property values go down.’ There are racial problems. I noticed it in the way people talk,” Williams said.

Many residents believe as Vern Martin does. Martin, a retired educator who has lived in Garden Grove for 40 years, is against adding the church to the neighborhood in the 11700 block of Lampson Avenue because, he says, it will add traffic and noise problems. He also contends that the proposed one-acre site is too small to handle any future growth.

“I feel that the church is needed to fill a void in the Korean community. But irrespective of the ethnicity of the congregation, I feel if it (were) located here, it would not be appropriate because it denies congregational growth,” Martin said.

The controversy has attracted the attention of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, which will send a one of its members as a representative, Rabbi Henry Front, who is expected to speak on behalf of the proposal at Tuesday’s meeting.

In Garden Grove, there are 1,098 Koreans--less than 1% of the city’s population, according to the 1980 Census. No estimates for 1988 are available, city officials said. According to census figures, the dominant Asian population in the city was Vietnamese, with 2,711, then Japanese, with 1,295.

However, city officials estimated that the Asian population has increased about 2% a year since 1980, bringing the total Asian population to 8%--about 10,700 residents of the city’s 134,300 residents.

City officials said hundreds of Korean-owned businesses have sprouted since 1980 in the area known as Koreatown, along Garden Grove Boulevard. Their visibility angered many Anglo residents, some of whom launched an unsuccessful drive for English-only business signs. But city officials noted that a recent study concluded that Anglo-owned businesses remain a majority in the Koreatown area.

Although there are thousands of Koreans in Orange County, only three Orange Korean Evangelical Churches exist--in Irvine, Midway City and Fullerton, Huh said.

“We do not have any churches in Garden Grove, which is the center of our business community. This will be the first Korean church in Garden Grove,” he said.

Already, seven major Korean organizations in Southern California, including the Orange County Korean-American Assn., Southern California Assn. of Korean Churches, and business groups, have endorsed the proposal.

In the Korean culture, churches are regarded as the hub of the congregation’s social, religious, cultural and political needs.

“It’s an opportunity for the old to sit and chat and see the younger generation. For the young, it’s a center of culture, a reminder of the Korean values that we have held for centuries,” said A. Andrew Kim, a spokesman for the Orange County Korean-American Assn. in Garden Grove.

“Since many do not understand or speak English fluently, the church gives them a chance to seek help, get advice and aid them with transactions in the Western community,” Kim said.

For Korean community leader Ho Young Chung of Fullerton, the battle symbolizes a fundamental misunderstanding of Koreans and the Korean culture.

‘Not a Church Issue’

“This is not a church issue,” Chung said. “People have tried to stay away from the race issue, but what else is there?”

The project was rejected by the city Planning Commission last December when residents turned out in force. Huh appealed to the City Council. But he was told that he needed an additional traffic and noise study after the council deadlocked 2 to 2, with one council member abstaining. The church was forced to pay $5,600 for a consultant, whose findings matched those of the city engineer, who had already concluded that a church would not greatly affect traffic on Lampson. On Tuesday, the church will present that study to the council.

The city has provided Huh with a list of 11 other possible sites, but they were either unavailable or the sellers wanted too much, he said. In the meantime, the congregation’s $2,600 monthly mortgage must be paid. Huh said the congregation made a down payment of $100,000 after buying the Lampson property for $300,000 last year.

“We have answered all they want,” Chung said. “What’s really the reason behind this? Maybe they have a bias, maybe they believe that we’re inferior people, that we’re the yellow peril.

“But that’s a fear, and maybe this is a test for the Korean people to demonstrate and show them that we are good neighbors.

“Someone said this area doesn’t want change. But life is change. Everything changes whether they like it or dislike it. Koreatown is already rapidly developing. Hundreds of Korean business people are adding to the city’s tax revenue and are influencing Garden Grove. We want to become involved with the future of the city.”