Washington church challenges county's plan to limit building size

By The Associated Press

03.29.01

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REDMOND, Wash. — The Rev. Bill Bump is not happy with his Timberlake Christian Fellowship's central role in a heated debate over suburban sprawl in King County.

"What makes us uncomfortable is the county saying they're putting this ordinance in because of Timberlake," said Bump, interim senior pastor of the church being built just east of Redmond.

The county denies Bump's church prompted the effort to ban large churches and schools in rural areas to the east.

"I think you can say (Timberlake) brought attention to the issue, but we had already committed to keeping the rural area rural," said Elaine Kraft, spokeswoman for King County Executive Ron Sims.

Sims wants church and school buildings in the rural area kept under 10,000 square feet and multiple buildings on single sites kept under 20,000 square feet.

Timberlake envisions its new $14.8 million Free Methodist Church at 80,000 square feet. The 12-year-old church, now with 1,000 members, has never had its own building, and long-range plans also call for a gym for its young people on the 63-acre site.

The issue for the county and folks who live nearby is the grand scale of the proposed church building.

"We're appealing the size, not the concept," said Steve Shifton, president of Citizens for Responsible Rural Area Development and a neighborhood resident for more than 30 years. "The entire neighborhood would absolutely welcome a neighborhood church with open arms."

Timberlake is rallying to fight Sims' proposal, joining forces with Overlake Christian Church in Redmond and Eastridge Christian Assembly Church in Issaquah to form the Citizens United for Religious Freedom.

From their perspective, the proposed restrictions "appear to unduly burden the free exercise of religion," which is protected by both the state constitution and the First Amendment.

The issue has incensed the Catholic Church, which also has plans to build churches in rural areas. Seattle Archbishop Alexander Brunett has vowed to fight the county all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

Sims, himself an ordained Baptist minister, says the proposed ordinance would help combat "the suburbanization of rural King County."

The issue has divided the King County Council. Instead of voting on the proposal as scheduled in February, members imposed a 10-month moratorium on such buildings in the rural area, and established a task force to study the issue.

Timberlake already has a county building permit and is proceeding with the first phase of its new church, Bump said. The second phase is another matter.

In the past three years, the church's case has been tossed back and forth among different courts and county hearing examiners.

The permit for the first phase, scheduled for completion by October, calls for a structure of 48,500 square feet. The proposed second phase would expand it to 80,000 square feet, about the size of the Nordstrom's flagship store in downtown Seattle.

When the county said no to that, the church sued. A hearing examiner sided with the church, but was reversed by a Superior Court judge on appeal. A second county hearing examiner last year approved a church of 48,500 square feet, the size of the Albertson's store just down the road.

Timberlake has appealed the decision to keep the church less than 50,000 square feet, saying that's not big enough.

Shifton's group has appealed the decision as well, saying even the first-phase building is too big. The Citizens for Responsible Rural Area Development is pressing to limit the church to 20,000 square feet, which is bigger than all but one of the rural area's existing churches.

Fire and police protection in the area is not adequate for as large a facility as the church, says County Councilwoman Louise Miller, who represents the area. And Evans Creek runs through the property, a tributary of Bear Creek, which is home to six species of salmon including chinook, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

"It is a very large church in a very rural area on a very sensitive piece of land," Miller said.

Update

Washington judge OKs construction of megachurch
Timberlake Christian Fellowship had argued county’s proposed size limits violated congregation’s religious freedom.  05.31.01