Zoning still constricts some houses of worship

By The Associated Press

04.14.02

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MEDIA, Pa. — Two dozen members of the Freedom Baptist Church met quietly for nearly a year in a makeshift chapel beneath a dentist's office before municipal officials found them out and ordered them to shut down.

Their transgression: violation of township zoning laws.

Even though the chapel sits next to a synagogue and across the street from a Presbyterian church, Middletown Township officials said the neighborhood was zoned for commercial buildings only, and that houses of worship were prohibited.

The order, now on appeal to U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, is one of a handful of cases across the country that could test the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Signed into law by President Clinton in 2000, the act exempts religious groups from most local zoning rules unless a community can show that the restrictions are necessary to protect public safety.

Despite the act, religious-rights groups say suburbs have continued to apply zoning regulations that make it tough for new churches to set up in neighborhoods where they were once welcomed.

"It's absolutely astounding. It's like these people have never read the First Amendment — never heard of freedom of religion," said Patrick Korten, a spokesman for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Lawyers for the foundation, which is now representing Freedom Baptist, have asked a federal judge to rule that the act protects the church's small meetings from government intrusion. Attorneys for the township's insurance company have moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that the act is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell is to hear arguments in the case on April 19.

The battle over the Delaware County church in suburban Philadelphia is one of many involving the 2-year-old law.

A United Methodist church in Cheyenne, Wyo., said in February that it would use the law to challenge the city's refusal to let it open a day-care center.

The tiny Hale O Kaula church on the slopes of the Haleakala volcano in Maui, Hawaii, cited the act in a suit seeking permission to hold services in what is now an agricultural building.

The Becket Fund in November filed suit against the zoning board of Bedford, N.Y., which had ordered a group of 11 Buddhists to stop holding silent meditation sessions in a private home on the grounds that the gatherings were too noisy and might cause extra traffic.

Other litigants have included a Buddhist priest near Pittsburgh, who had been prohibited from holding services on any day but Sunday, and a Jewish congregation in Abington, Pa., where residents have tried to stop the group from moving into a former convent.

Middletown Township zoning officer Jack McKeown touched off the Freedom Baptist Church battle last year when he drove by the Middletown Family Dentistry and noticed a portable sign advertising evening religious services.

"No occupancy approval had been granted, and religious worship is not a permitted use for an office zoning district," McKeown said. "We've always seen this as purely a zoning and land-use issue. It's never been a question of religion."

The church applied for a special permit, but a town zoning board turned it down, saying the building didn't have enough parking. The church's appeal has allowed it to remain open.

Pastor Chris Keay said that even before the legal problems the church struggled to find a location in the township where it could worship.

"It's been very hard to find a spot," Keay said. "We can't afford to buy vacant property or an existing church building."

The congregation initially rented space in a school, but moved when the district considered new policies making it tougher to lease space to religious groups, he said.

So far the suit hasn't hurt a membership drive at the two-year-old church, whose congregation has grown to about 40 in recent months.

"We aren't looking for trouble — just a place to pray," Keay said.

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