North Coast Church is moving forward with plans to build a 20,330-square-foot campus on 9 acres formerly owned by Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in Ramona.
The main buildings proposed by the church include a nearly 6,000-square-foot sanctuary, 4,500-square-foot fellowship hall, and 9,400 square feet of istration and classroom space, said Steve Powell, president of Woodcrest Homes Real Estate Ventures of Ramona, which is consulting on the project.
The prime property on the western gateway to town at state Route 67 and Highland Valley Road is recognizable by the Welcome to Ramona sign.
“It’s exciting and nice to see something coming to fruition on that corner that has just been sitting there,” Powell said.
The Ramona Community Planning Group on May 1 unanimously approved a minor deviation that allows changes to Spirit of Joy’s original major use permit for their church project at the site, which fell through in 2021.
Planning Group Chair Lauren Elyse Welty and member Jonas Dyer, who work for Woodcrest Homes, recused themselves from voting on the item.
The deviation allows the proposed church campus to be upgraded from 19,300 square feet to 20,330 square feet, Powell said. Both proposals are similar and include the construction of a sanctuary, fellowship hall, istration office, classrooms, maintenance building and parking lot, Powell said.
Jamie Looney of Vista-based Unite Pacific, also a consultant on the North Coast Church project, said the Planning Group’s approval was “fantastic.”
“We had hoped and prayed that would be the outcome,” Looney said. “We had received unanimous approval from the Ramona Design Review Board as well. Ideally, the major use permit will move through the county and be approved, and from there the conceptual designs will move into a construction drawing phase.”
North Coast Church currently holds services at Ramona High School. The church also has multiple campuses in Mexico and Southern California, including in Rancho Bernardo, San Marcos, Escondido, Vista and Carlsbad.
Current plans call for developing the Ramona campus in a “modern barn aesthetic” that is consistent with the rural nature of Ramona, Looney said.
“We wanted to have the buildings identifiable behind the Welcome to Ramona sign and wanted them to reflect the sentiments of the community,” said Looney, who has also been a consultant for the church on transitioning its Carlsbad, Fallbrook and San Marcos campuses from temporary to more permanent locations.
Although Looney and Powell did not identify when construction could start, Looney said proponents are optimistic the county will be receptive to the church’s plans.
“They would like this project to come to fruition,” Looney said. “It’s been a broken project for a long time. It started and stopped, and the county is being very ive.”
Much of the groundwork has been completed by Spirit of Joy, including grading and stormwater improvements, so North Coast can focus on constructing the buildings, he said.
Spirit of Joy started to work on their church campus proposal in 2008. After the church’s leaders got the OK to change their project in 2014, they continued to pursue a major use permit. That involved meeting California Environmental Quality Act standards related to items such as noise and traffic limits, biological and archaeological protections, and adequate site drainage, Powell said.
The church modified their plans by slightly expanding the planned sanctuary and fellowship halls and reducing the parking lot size in 2016. Their plans had moved forward with the drawing of construction documents, grading and onsite improvements through 2020, he said.
But the church hit roadblocks in February 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, financial constraints, market conditions and the high cost of grading the vacant property, among other things.
In April 2021 the church put the property on the market for $3.5 million. That was after the church had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars installing infrastructure, including pads and a water hookup, and had county approval for a wastewater treatment system, said the pastor at the time, the Rev. Dan Erlenbusch.
Erlenbusch, who had founded the church more than 30 years ago with his wife, Karyn, said after the church’s Building Committee reviewed its financial conditions, the majority of the congregation voted to sell the land.
Two years later, in February 2023, Erlenbusch announced that he and Karyn were leaving Spirit of Joy to begin full-time interim ministry. They are now at Newport Harbor Lutheran Church in Newport Beach.
The Rev. Lawrence Hand took leadership of Spirit of Joy as interim pastor three months later. Last summer, the church moved its worship services to a shared location with Ramona United Methodist Church at 3394 Chapel Lane.
The Iglesia de Dios Nueva Jerusalen Cuadrangular, translated as New Jerusalem Foursquare Church of God, has moved into Spirit of Joy’s former location at 1735 Main St.
North Coast leaders started negotiations to purchase the property about two and a half years ago, Looney said, but the buyer and seller could not reach agreement and they parted ways amicably.
“Then about six to eight months later the property was relisted and North Coast re-engaged at that time,” he said. “We could say at more amicable deal points.”
He declined to say how much the church paid for the property.
The corner lot is zoned for agricultural uses but could also be developed with a winery or church.
Planning Group welcomed the concept presented by Powell. Maureen Dant said she was reassured by a church member attending the meeting that there were no plans to turn the church’s proposed classroom space into a school. Terry Maxson said he was told the church would have a single entrance and exit off Highland Valley Road, not on SR-67.
“I like the use of native plants and shrubs,” said member Basil Aruin before the group agreed to the project and approve the minor deviation.
