Church
Free Zoning Rules Challenged in Federal Suit
By Alison Espach
CNSNews.com Correspondent
August 02, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - A church-free zoning ordinance has touched off a legal
fight in Titusville, Pa., with city officials relying on a 1976 regulation to
try to prevent the Lighthouse Christian Center from building a new church in
the city's commercial district.
The conservative legal group Liberty Counsel has filed a federal lawsuit
against Titusville on behalf of the church, alleging that the "church-free"
zoning rule violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act
of 2000 (RLUIPA), which Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed to
protect religious freedom.
Tim Lorenz, a building inspector and zoning officer for the city of Titusville,
cited the "Codified Ordinances of Titusville," specifically Article
1311.04, for deciding to reject the church's plans.
The section in question limits C-1 Commercial district permits to stores,
restaurants, offices, theaters, gas stations, hotels, clubs and other
nonreligious services. Churches are only permitted in residential areas of
Titusville.
Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said the city blocked
the Lighthouse Christian Center from locating in the commercial district, even
though the church had already secured a lease in a building zoned for C-1.
He blamed Titusville officials for applying the 1976 ordinance without checking
to see if it complied with the RLUIPA or the First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, the latter of which states that "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof."
Staver said the city's ruling also violates the Lighthouse Christian Center's
rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which declares that
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property."
"It's one thing to have a code that's just sitting there, but it's another
thing to actually continually apply it, as in this particular case the city has
done," said Staver.
The Lighthouse Christian Center is "in dire straits because this
particular city ordinance has essentially removed them from the city limits and
they can't use the property that was ideal for them," he added.
According to Liberty Counsel, the church was previously located in East
Hickory, Pa., in a 1,400 square foot building that had no sewage or running
water.
The new building leased by the Lighthouse Christian Center was intended to
house worship meetings, food storage and distribution and as well as a
Christian bookstore, teenager outreach program, and television ministry.
Liberty Counsel stated that the facility was the "ideal location" for
the Center because it is "located in the target population of the church's
primary outreach to teenagers."
"They are now languishing in a rental property that lacks heat and
insulation," Staver added. "Certainly that has to be remedied fairly
quickly, because when we enter the winter months that could be essentially a
component that would shut the operation down."
Lorenz said he was simply doing his job to enforce the law. "It is a
pretty old ordinance, and what the people who are responsible for writing the
ordinance had in mind back then, I have no idea," said Lorenz. "I am
just enforcing it as it is written."
Staver said that when Congress passed the Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), "it was incumbent upon all
municipalities to revisit their zoning ordinances in relation to houses of
worship."
RLUIPA states that "No government shall impose or implement a land use
regulation in a manner that treats a religious assembly or institution on less
than equal terms with a nonreligious assembly or institution."
Staver said many local zoning ordinances conflict with RLUIPA and such
controversies have been frequently litigated since the federal law went into
effect.
On July 26 a small Orthodox synagogue in Hollywood, Fla., was permitted to
remain in its location after Judge Joan Lenard of the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of Florida ruled against the city's zoning ordinance.
On June 6 the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the town of Mount Pleasant,
N.Y., could not use its zoning ordinance to prohibit a religious
"conference and training center" run by the Legion of Christ in the
same building as a secular "conference and training center" run
previously by IBM.
Staver said there is "no question" that the U.S. District Court for
the Western District of Pennsylvania, where he filed the lawsuit on behalf of
the Lighthouse Christian Center, will decide to allow the church to move into
Titusville's commercial district.