ABBEY'S AMBITION VALYERMO MONASTERY PLANS FOR FIVE NEW BUILDINGS ON THE SITE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

VALYERMO - St. Andrew's Abbey, home to the popular Valyermo Fall Festival, is embarking on a $10 million-plus plan to build a new arts and crafts center, welcome center, church, library, and kitchen and refectory dining room.

The plans call for constructing the five buildings within two to three years at the abbey, a Benedictine monastery established in the 1950s at what was then a ranch.

``We had to submit a master plan for our future plans. We are seeking with that to complete the monastery and buildings we think are essential to our operations,'' the Rev. Simon O'Donnell said.

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission will hold a hearing Wednesday on granting the abbey a conditional-use permit for its expansion.

The five buildings are part of the first phase of the abbey's master plan. The second phase, which is at least five years down the road, calls for replacing monastery rooms where the monks reside. One such room is a converted cow barn.

In all, the total renovation and expansion would add 150,975 square feet of floor space to the site.

The 764-acre abbey is home to 22 monks and offers spiritual retreats to the general public and youth groups. The grounds include a youth retreat center and an adult retreat house.

The 10,000-square-foot arts and crafts center would provide space for the abbey's ceramics program and monk artists' studios, O'Donnell said. The center would be located midway between the monastery retreat house and the youth center complex.

The center would replace the ceramics building that is an old cow shed, which is inadequate and unsafe, O'Donnell said.

Plans also call for building a welcome center, a new library, a church and replacing the kitchen and refectory dining room, a total of 22,000 square feet, O'Donnell said.

The abbey's church was a stable until the monks bought the old ranch.

The cost of the arts and crafts center is $750,000, and the other four buildings are estimated to cost about $10 million, O'Donnell said.

The arts and crafts center and the welcome center are paid for, O'Donnell said.

The abbey's library contains 40,000 books, including early monastic literature and church writings produced after the New Testament up to the 7th century, he said.

Some books are more than a century old and written in Greek and Latin.

``The library is an essential part of the monastery. To have it properly housed is even more essential these days,'' O'Donnell said.

Every year the abbey opens its doors to the public for the fall festival, which features arts and crafts, rides and games, entertainment and a variety of food.

The festival began as a celebration for giving thanks, by monks driven from China after the communist takeover who had settled at what was then Hidden Springs Ranch.

The facility is located five miles south of Pearblossom Highway on Valyermo Road.

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(color)The Rev. Simon O'Donnell, a Benedictine monk at St. Andrew's, said the Valyermo abbey will construct five buildings.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer