Church Files Suit Claiming Pennsylvania City's Zoning Laws Discriminate
by Allie Martin
October 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Liberty Counsel, a pro-family legal organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, has asked a federal judge to stop a Pennsylvania city government from enforcing a "church-free zone," which the attorneys claim the city has effectively created through its unfair zoning practices. Lighthouse Christian Center opened several years ago in a small building in East Hickory, Pennsylvania. The church quickly outgrew that facility, and agreed to a lease in a commercial area in the city of Titusville -- an area which is convenient to the church's target population and where a large portion of its members live.
The church officials were pleased with the property, which they deemed large enough to house not only their twice-weekly worship meetings but also to contain a Christian bookstore, a food storage and distribution facility, the church's teen ministry operation, and a television ministry.
However, Titusville officials there refused to let the church use the land, claiming the city's zoning ordinances do not allow churches in the downtown area.
Liberty Counsel recently filed a federal lawsuit on Lighthouse Christian Center's behalf. The legal group's founder and chairman, Matthew D. Staver, says such an ordinance as the Titusville officials are citing is unconstitutional and "also violates the federal law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act," or RLUIPA.
Mat Staver | |
Staver notes that RLUIPA was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority back in 2000. "What we have learned since then is that churches are not prohibited from going in the inner city or anywhere within the city," he says. "Cities cannot create what's called a church-free zone, as the city of Titusville did in this case." Lighthouse Christian Center's legal representatives are asking the court to block the enforcement of Titusville's zoning law "so that this church can begin operating right in the downtown, inner-city area," the Liberty Counsel spokesman says. "In this particular case," he points out, "the city allows other kinds of uses [of land by organizations and entities] that are similar to a church in terms of their impact."
Bars, theaters, clubs, lodges, restaurants, and other kinds of social organizations and associations -- Titusville officials permit secular entities like these to set up in the downtown area, Staver notes, all the while apparently barring congregations like Lighthouse Christian from using land there.
"And it's not necessarily just a tax issue where they want to gain revenue from a commercial venture," the attorney emphasizes, "because other nonprofits are allowed there, as long as they're not churches." Titusville's ordinance goes too far, he contends, and he believes the Pennsylvania city's officials are showing a blatant hostility towards churches.
The lawsuit Liberty Counsel filed against the city cites violations of RLUIPA as well as the U.S. Constitution. The church's attorneys have also requested a preliminary injunction to allow Lighthouse Christian Center to locate in the prohibited zoning district, pending the resolution of the case on the merits.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
