VISTA -- After more than half a decade of shopping for property, working with the city and juggling lawsuits, North Coast Church is ready to begin work on its 40-acre mega-church complex in north Vista, church officials said last week.

The initial grading on the triangular-shaped parcel, sandwiched between North Santa Fe Avenue and Guajome Lake Road, is likely to start by mid-December, said Charlie Bradshaw, the church's executive pastor.

The work will include brush clearing and erosion-control projects, as well as traffic control and street improvements for areas surrounding the property.

"The bottom line is, we plan to move dirt in December, and we are excited about that," Bradshaw said.

Grading would be the first step of the church's 20-year, phased development plan for the site.

The first phase of construction, which includes grading, public improvement, 950 parking spaces and five buildings totaling about 100,000 square feet of usable space, is expected to take between 16 and 20 months, Bradshaw said.

The five buildings will house the main sanctuary, a couple of smaller worship venues, educational classrooms, a midweek preschool, a kitchen and some of the administrative offices, he added.

The initial construction, landscaping and traffic control projects are expected to cost the church about $48 million. Figures for the total, 20-year project were not available.

North Coast has a building permit allowing it to eventually grow the complex to include nine buildings with some 365,000 square feet and 2,300 parking spaces.

The additional four buildings would include a K-12 school, a caretaker's residence, more administrative offices and a commercial office for support services, as well an expansion of the main sanctuary.

Those future projects will depend on the church's needs and the number of congregates, Bradshaw said.

North Coast welcomes about 5,600 worshipers each weekend at its present location, an industrial-commercial complex at 1132 N. Melrose Drive, about two miles south of the relocation site.

Permits pending

For now, the church has two grading permits for the site that are currently pending with the city. One would allow for the initial brush clearing, minor grading and public improvements, and the other, more detailed, permit is for the building pads, City Planner John Conley said.

The city reviewed both permits earlier this fall and returned them to the church for minor erosion-control revisions. The city is waiting for them to be resubmitted for the final approval, said Greg Mayer, a city engineer who approves grading projects in the city's Planning Department.

Bradshaw said that church officials planned to have the grading permits and three of the buildings construction permits to the city before the holidays, which would mean they could possibly begin work on the property as early as the first week of December.

"We just want to get started as soon as possible," he said.

If all goes as scheduled, the church plans to begin building in the spring and hopes to be moved into the new facility in the later part of 2008.

"We are making positive progress," he said.

Previous challenges

Construction on the land has been stalled in the past by formal complaints from a local, nonprofit neighborhood group that launched a vigorous campaign against the church's development plan.

The group -- Guajome Alliance for Responsible Development, which is dedicated to the preservation of the city's rural Guajome area -- raised concerns about the project's impact on the environment and the community, in two lawsuits filed in 2001 and 2004.

The first complaint followed the Planning Commission and City Council's approval of the new facility in 2001. The church's application to use the land did not include an environmental study when the city approved it, so the alliance sued to require one.

The church voluntarily had the study and submitted a second application, instead of litigating the matter. The city reapproved the new land use plans.

In June 2004, the alliance filed its second lawsuit, claiming that the City Council did not take into account the extent of impact the project would have on the surrounding community and environment.

This matter, however, was laid to rest in a settlement reached between the city, church and alliance in January 2005. The settlement permitted the church to move forward with the project, as long it would delay construction on the K-12 school facilities for up to 10 years, notify residents about any work beforehand and agreed to not develop the property beyond the city-approved plans, Bradshaw said.

The church also agreed to put several thousand dollars toward a county traffic study and attorney fees for the nonprofit group.

Melinda Craft, a resident of Guajome Lake Road and an alliance member, said that the group was just trying to protect their "little country neighborhood."

"We worked the city of Vista," Craft said. "We did everything we could to change them."

Craft said that residents were happy that some concession were made, but are still concerned about traffic and how the buildings, especially the two-story parking structure, will obstruct their views and ocean breeze.

Bradshaw, however, said he hopes the church and neighbors will continue to move forward together. He added that some of North Coast's worshippers also live near the new site.

"We have always wanted to be good neighbors," he said. "We want to be and plan to be."

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 631-6604 or schabner@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.