Public hearing will address request for new Kingdom Hall

A public hearing notice stands in front of the building currently used as a Kingdom Hall. (Staff photo)

A public hearing will be held during Wednesday’s Menifee Planning Commission meeting regarding a plan to replace an outdated church building in the Sun City community with a smaller structure.

Plans call for the demolition of a 5,381-square-foot building that has served as a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses with a 3,312-square-foot building, also to serve as a Kingdom Hall. The church site is located in the 29100 block of Del Monte Drive, next to another church in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood.

The project includes a 67-space parking lot and 32,346 square feet of landscape area. The site is bordered by houses on one side and an undeveloped lot owned by the adjacent church on the other.

According to city documents, the area is zoned as residential. However, that site and the adjacent site were approved for religious institutions by Riverside County prior to Menifee’s incorporation. In 1964 – two years after developer Del Webb began construction on the Sun City retirement community – the original building was constructed by First Baptist Church. In the late 1960s, Jewish faith group Temple Beth Shalom purchased the property.

Years after the structure was expanded, new owner Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses began in 2013 to seek permits for additional changes on the 1.43-acre site.

The design (below) of the proposed new Kingdom Hall is compatible with the original “low profile ranch style community” theme of the neighborhood, according to city documents.

Wednesday’s Planning Commission begins at 6 p.m. and can be viewed virtually through a link on the City of Menifee website.