July 16, 2001

Zoning issues hamper church expansion today
___By Ken Walker
___Special to the Standard
___AUSTIN--Is a second five-story parking garage needed to accommodate 4,500 Sunday worshipers at Hyde Park Baptist Church?
___The church thinks so. In April, it sued in federal court, claiming constitutional violations are preventing it from proceeding. The action followed a city council vote against allowing a facility that would house nearly 500 cars.
___"We're not the only church in Austin this has happened to," said deacon Dan Rogers, a spokesman for the 107-year-old congregation. "Others have been turned down for parking garages, but they didn't have an agreement saying they could do it."
___The nearby neighborhood association believes otherwise, however. Co-President Niyanta Spelman agrees the church has the right to build, but she believes the church originally agreed to a smaller "footprint." She also contends the church refuses to consider other modifications.
___"We've tried to talk to the church for the last two years and said, 'There's got to be a compromise.' I think there's a win-win situation here," she said. "Unfortunately, the church hasn't been willing to change what it wants."
___Welcome to one of greatest perils facing growing churches of all sizes in America today.
___Whether the largest church in Texas' capital or a storefront assembly in St. Louis, faith groups across America are increasingly embroiled in battles over zoning regulations.
___Some recent examples:
___ The New Milford, Conn., zoning commission cited a Catholic couple last November for hosting prayer meetings of up to 30 people. After Robert and Mary Murphy went to court, a federal judge issued an injunction preventing the city from shutting them down.
___ In suburban Minneapolis, Advent Lutheran Church is fighting a $158,000 assessment for road improvements levied late last year by the city of Roseville. Pastor Thomas Basich recently told Christianity Today: "An assessment is a tax. We have to draw a line somewhere, and the line is zero."
___ The Hole in the Roof Ministry Center recently won a court judgment after St. Louis refused to issue an occupancy permit for a storefront location. The city's proposed area redevelopment plan bans social service agencies and storefront churches. Pastor Paul Hamilton plans a federal suit if the latter restriction stands.
___ An Orthodox Jewish couple in Owings Mills, Md., was fined $1,000 after failing to request a permit for Sabbath gatherings. After a neighbor complained, a zoning official said they had converted their home to a religious institution. The fine was later dropped, but the official vowed to continue enforcing the permit requirement.
___ More than 2,000 cities nationwide have preservation ordinances to protect buildings or areas that have historical or architectural significance, and these ordinances increasingly impact churches seeking to remodel or enlarge their facilities.
___In late May, Bannockburn Baptist Church in Austin filed a site plan for a two-story education building to house adult and children's classes. The need has become acute, with attendance swelling from 700 to 850 since 1998.
___"We've run out of space," said Education Minister Larry Lormond. "We have people willing to teach classes and nowhere to put them."
___Although it obtained approval of the plan and secured a building permit in 1991, those documents expired several years later when the church didn't proceed with the project.
___Supposedly, its plans were to be "grandfathered" under a state law aimed at redressing what was considered overly-strict regulatory enforcement in Austin.
___But when the associate pastor approached city officials 18 months ago, they told him: "All bets are off. Things have changed."
___Instead of giving up, Bannockburn retained an engineering firm. In late May, the church learned it could refile the plans with an expectation of approval.
___"We feel a sense of responsibility for being where we are and have to have a plan," Lormond said. "But we have to know--what are our options? Do we go to two Sunday Schools or what? If you don't push, you don't get anywhere."
___Ironically, such problems have occurred despite Texas' status as one of a dozen states that have adopted religious-rights bills.
___The legislation followed the U.S. Supreme Court's voiding of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act--which stemmed from a Boerne dispute over a Catholic church's plans to modify its historic building.
___"This whole area of law is extremely complex," said Derek Davis, director of Baylor's University's church-state studies institute. "We're always weighing state interests versus private interests, and the (U.S.) Supreme Court has bounced back and forth on these issues."
___Some cases assume an anti-Christian cloak, like the San Antonio resident who sued the city several years ago for renting a parking lot to a church on Sundays. A judge there ruled against the claim, saying it was an arm's-length transaction.
___However, Davis cautions that not all zoning battles stem from such sentiments. He points out the state has a compelling interest in traffic flow, noise and safety, especially in crowded neighborhoods.
___According to the Baylor official, who testified in favor of the Texas Religious Liberty Protection Act two years ago, Texas' new law creates a presumption that churches' claims are superior. That is, unless the state can show a compelling property-rights interest.
___"Contrary to what people think, though, that doesn't mean the church automatically wins," he said. "There is room for compromise."
___To avoid problems, churches should plan expansions carefully, said the director of the church facilities office for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Keith Crouch, whose office does on-site consultations with 400 to 500 churches a year, said many encounter parking problems.
___While many meet municipal codes that call for one parking space for every three to five people, in reality the average statewide ratio is 2.25 people per car, he said.
___Mission churches and small ethnic starts will average closer to three people per car, but in more affluent areas the figure drops to two. For churches with heavy senior adult or singles populations, it dips to about 1.5.
___"Churches will put in the minimum to meet city codes," Crouch said. "But we tell them, 'As you fill up your building, people will be parking on the lawn, gravel or on streets.'"
___As with Hyde Park, churches may experience problems with neighborhood associations. Some restrict on-street parking, which means using church property or renting off-street space, he said.
___Besides parking, churches can incur difficulties because of fire and building codes and handicapped accessible regulations that require certain activities be located on lower levels.
___With shrinking numbers of permissible activities on second or third floors, the number of people served per acre has shrunk in recent decades from 170 to 120, Crouch added.
___"The best thing is to be pro-active in master planning," he said. "Everything begins with vision, objectives and strategy. Churches need to know their ministry objectives and then plan facilities around them."
___However, sometimes churches just have to grin and bear it, said an associate pastor in a master-plan community 40 miles north of Houston.
___"Last year, we cleared a lot to build a parking lot and we had a lot of community uproar over the fact we tore down trees," said Bryan Butler, also minister of education at First Baptist Church of The Woodlands. "We face a lot of things from the community because of ecological consciousness."
___While there is no city government, everything the church does must be reviewed by the operating company that oversees the community of 50,000.
___This spring it took six weeks to get approval for a construction sign announcing the redevelopment of an old athletic club into a youth and education center. And because a 45-foot greenbelt of trees must surround its property, it's easy to drive by and miss the church, Butler said.
___When push comes to shove, however, some churches are finding they simply have to fight city hall.
___Hyde Park has plenty of experience, having faced pickets in 1989 and 990 protesting its acquisition of homes in the community.
___Pickets returned last year after a new association--the Alliance to Save Hyde Park--formed to contest the new parking garage. Saying the first isn't filled to capacity, they have argued for reduced height and landscaping setbacks to provide a buffer for affected neighbors.
___But Rogers said the issue is the city and association turning their backs on an agreement the association and city made in 1990. He believes this battle poses a warning to congregations across Texas to raise adequate expansion funds.
___"Churches are going to have more vacant land, more greenbelt sites," he said. "My advice to any church planning to build a new one is they better plan for 20 to 30 years out. If they're going to buy 10 acres, they ought to buy 20 acres instead so they don't have that problem."

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