Large Murrieta Church Plans To Build New Youth Center

MURRIETA, CA — A proposed new 4,680-square-foot youth center at Calvary Chapel Murrieta continues to move forward. During Wednesday night's Murrieta Planning Commission meeting, a revised conditional use permit will be reviewed.

The large-congregation Christian church at 24225 Monroe Avenue seeks to erect the youth center in a single-story, 18.5-foot-tall metal assembly building on .31 acres at its property site.

"The proposed building will provide space that will be programmed for spiritual and educational growth by providing the youth who attend a place to have ministry events, worship nights and bible teaching for church ministries," according to city documents.

The proposed youth center will cater to middle- and high-school-aged church members.

The church has a school ministry, Calvary Murrieta Christian Schools, that will also use the building for worship, bible teaching and youth events, the documents state.

The church already has 315 parking spaces, including eight accessible spaces. As a condition of approval for the youth center, the city is requiring the church to install two EV stations.

Vehicle access to the facility already exists from Monroe Avenue. According to city documents, the youth center is not expected to impact traffic in the area because the new facility is "intended for existing site users, since the school would not be adding additional students."

As proposed, the new youth center is not supposed to increase the originally permitted maximum capacity at Calvary Chapel Murrieta, which allowed a 960-seat church complex with a 760-student private school.

The church and school will operate the youth center at different times. The church's youth ministries will have access weekdays (intermittently Monday through Friday) from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and on Sundays from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Calvary's existing student population will have access to the youth center Monday through Friday (intermittently) from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Wednesday's 6 p.m. Murrieta Planning Commission meeting takes place at 1 Town Square (City Hall). See the full meeting agenda here.