...but of course, we've all seen the HATE MONGERS that call themselves "truth" try to make this a racial issue. Any LIE they can tell to further their cause, right mister ireland???

Here's a great article about other area communities fighting similar battles to keep out massive expansions of religious facilities. Some are "white" churches in "white" areas. One is Korean. One is a mosque. The ONLY thing they all have in common is that they are MASSIVE developments in communities that can not handle the size and scope of the project.

From Newsday (http://www.newsday.com/features/printedition/longislandlife/ny-lfcov4673392mar26,0,3782860.story?coll=ny-lilife-print):


Prayers & contention
Churches see crowded pews. Neighbors fear crowded streets. Both sides feel frustration as congregations seek to expand.

BY COLLIN NASH
STAFF WRITER; Staff writer Mitchell Freedman contributed to this story.

March 26, 2006

His flock was growing. So the

Rev. William Cook arranged to buy a 29-acre parcel on Jericho Turnpike in Old Westbury and made plans for Bethel United

Pentecostal Church to set down roots. More than seven years later, all Cook has to show for his efforts is a dwindling bank account, a renovated barn for religious services and a knee-high stack of zoning-related documents. What he doesn't have is approval to build a new church.

In Brookhaven Town, Grace Church and its congregation of roughly 300 worship in space rented at the Patchogue United Artists movie theater. The church bought 5.6 acres in Medford in 2000 to erect a new building, but amendments made later to the town's zoning code have stalled Grace Church's application and cut by more than half the maximum allowable size of the structure. Grace has not received approval to build, either.

The churches - and other houses of worship on Long Island facing similar situations - feel they are being constrained in violation of a 2000 federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), that forbids local governments from using zoning laws to stop churches from establishing themselves or expanding. The conflict has sparked tensions among three groups:

Congregations, who say their constitutional right to worship freely is being curtailed.

Local residents, who say their quality of life would suffer because large houses of worship, in particular, can create parking, traffic and overuse problems.

Local government officials, who fear the permanent loss of revenue since houses of worship are tax-exempt.

"It's an attempt to exhaust us physically, emotionally and financially," Cook, Bethel's administrative pastor, said of Old Westbury's zoning policy. "They have declared war on churches."

Residents are every bit as passionate in their opposition.



The issues are size, traffic

"For most people in the community, it's not about the church, per se," said Trudy Lauben, a board member of the Medford Taxpayers Civic Association. The property Grace Church wants to build on is about an eighth of a mile from her residence, Lauben said. "It's about a building of that magnitude and the traffic it will attract, disrupting the community's character and bringing down property values."

Though large, none of the Long Island churches are considered megachurches because they do not have average weekly attendance of at least 2,000; some megachurches around the country have 10,000 or more members.

Bethel United Pentecostal, which has a congregation of 500, and Grace Church are not the only Long Island houses of worship battling local zoning ordinances. Central Presbyterian Church of New York has been seeking approval from Old Westbury for four years to build a new church.

The Long Island Muslim Society recently was denied a variance to build a mosque in East Meadow when the Hempstead Board of Appeals cited concerns over traffic and parking; the Society claimed anti-Muslim prejudice. In Malverne, the Church of the Intercessor has been locked in a nearly four-year battle with the village over the church's attempts to expand; a court decision earlier this month found the village had violated the federal law in blocking the church's plans.



Around the U.S.

The situation locally reflects a national trend. Since 2001, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has opened 26 investigations and commenced three lawsuits alleging religious discrimination under RLUIPA, said department spokesman Eric Holland. There is one ongoing case in New York, in the village of Airmont in Rockland County.

Additionally, there are hundreds of cases brought by churches themselves making their way through lower courts, according to experts. Those experts expect the U.S. Supreme Court inevitably will rule on the validity of RLUIPA.

The law, a widely supported bipartisan bill signed by President Bill Clinton, makes the establishment of a house of worship a priority use, even on residential property, and encourages municipalities to find ways to exempt religious institutions from normal requirements of their zoning code. It also requires a municipality to show it has a compelling interest in regulating a religious institution - for example, the institution affects the community's health or safety, not simply causes a minor inconvenience like traffic.

"RLUIPA really carves a huge hole in the ability of towns and counties to apply zoning to houses of worship," said Alan E. Brownstein, professor of constitutional law at the University of California at Davis and a nationally known expert on religious land use issues and states rights. Brownstein said courts "have really struggled" in interpreting the law and deciding what constitutes the "substantial burden" on the exercise of religion that triggers the act. "Houses of worship ... don't fit into classic zoning schemes," Brownstein said. "They bring more traffic than residential uses, but they don't hire people for jobs and don't pay taxes and don't bring in shoppers or consumers."

Those are some of the reasons churches need the protections of RLUIPA, supporters say. "Every day, religious institutions around the country have to run the gauntlet of discretionary, and in most cases arbitrary, zoning laws before they are allowed to locate anywhere within local jurisdictions," said Derek Gaubatz, director of litigation at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based interfaith public interest group that has filed friend-of-the-court briefs on behalf of churches in several states.

Critics say the federal law has tilted the playing field too far in favor of churches, synagogues and mosques. Houses of worship have become places used to host a variety of programs, said Marci Hamilton, a constitutional law professor at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School in Manhattan. To serve their expanding ministries, Hamilton said, they often buy a piece of property and proceed with applications for other nonreligious uses - including nursery and elementary schools, day care, teen and senior citizen programs, food pantries and wedding receptions - many of which take place on days other than Saturdays and Sundays.

Cook said Bethel would not use its proposed facility for wedding receptions, but he acknowledged that, as part of an international organization, the church plans to host conferences, rallies and conventions that likely would involve hundreds of participants.

"Religious entities are increasingly asking local governments to grant building plans on properties not suited to the intense use they want," Hamilton said. "We have hundreds of jurisdictions and homeowners up in arms because municipalities are intimidated by the threat of a federal lawsuit."

Sen. Charles Schumer (D- N.Y.), a co-sponsor of RLUIPA, maintains it is critical that municipalities comply with the law.

"Our office has been working hard on behalf of Bethel United Pentecostal to achieve an agreement with the village," Schumer spokeswoman Risa Heller said in a statement."

After Bethel purchased the 29-acre parcel in 1998 for $2.8 million, Old Westbury adopted a moratorium on new construction in June 1999 in order to review its zoning code, said village administrator Kenneth Callaghan. In November 1999, Cook submitted an application to renovate the old barn on the property as a temporary place of worship and filed a preliminary site plan for Bethel's dream church, a 28,000-square-foot structure with office space and classrooms for Sunday school.

Bethel then sold 11 acres of the plot on the advice, Cook said, of village trustee Henry Alpert, who was concerned about tax-exempt structures burdening the tax base, only to find out later that downsizing the property might mean having to scale back Bethel's building plans. Alpert said Cook was cautioned before the sale that a smaller property might mean a smaller church, according to village records.

With the moratorium still in effect, Bethel was granted a special-use permit in 2000 to renovate the old barn and, as part of the agreement, was required to pay $12,000 annually for five years in PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) payments. In March 2001, the village amended its code.



A more complicated process

Bethel's attorney, Diana Prevet, said Bethel would need nine variances to build the new church and keep the renovated barn under the amended code, but would have needed only three variances under the old code. New variances would be needed for the footprint of the church and its cubic volume, its front and side setbacks and the portion of the property that must remain undeveloped.

Like the old code, the new code capped the height of a church at 25 feet. The height limit for a residential structure is 35 feet. Given traditional church architecture, Prevet said, the church will need a height variance.

Cook also is frustrated that the village is suggesting Bethel eventually might have to tear down the renovated barn if it wants to build the new church as proposed; Callaghan said Bethel could keep the barn if it reduces the scale of his proposed new church. Cook said Bethel spent close to $1 million on those renovations and close to $200,000 on several versions of an environmental impact statement, which awaits a public hearing. Cook said he has yet to file a formal application for a new building.

Cook said the delay in approval has had repercussions for his rapidly growing church. "Often, it's standing-room only," he said, adding that some people turn away because there is not enough parking or space in the pews. Bethel also is unable to have Sunday school, a nursery for Sunday services or social gatherings for the congregation, Cook said.



Another zoning fight

Officials from Central Presbyterian Church of New York, based in Little Neck, describe similar obstacles in their four-year fight for zoning approval.

The Korean congregation of some 900 people bought a 20-acre former horse farm in 2001 on the south service road of the Long Island Expressway east of Glen Cove Road. But the application it filed soon after to build a church and related facilities, including a school and meeting rooms, has been stalled by Old Westbury's amended zoning code, said Central Presbyterian attorney Thomas Levin.

"The fundamental issue is that the village thinks the church is too large," Levin said. "We have reduced it as much as we can. The size they want won't accommodate our existing congregation."

Elaine Sammon, an attorney for the Village of Old Westbury, refused to discuss the pending applications, saying only that "the policy of the village is to treat everyone fairly and respect everyone's rights."

Grace Church in Brookhaven has been seeking approval for plans to build on a 5.6-acre former Christmas tree farm the church bought in 2000 on Oregon Avenue in Medford. The plans were derailed, senior pastor Roger Blackmore said, by zoning code changes adopted in October, after he submitted an application to build.

"There is a very worrying trend across Long Island, where we have elected officials who do not respect the contributions churches make to society," Blackmore said.

Blackmore submitted plans in March 2003 for a 28,000- square-foot building. Before the code's amendment, the church could have built a 36,000-square-foot structure in the residential community. Now, it cannot exceed 15,000 square feet.



Reasons for town action

"There were concerns within the town that we needed to limit the size of buildings within a residential zone," town board member Timothy Mazzei said. "It didn't have anything to do with Grace Church." Brookhaven Town spokesman Michael Pitcher said a motion on the town's calendar would exempt churches from the amended code.

Clergy from Bethel, Grace and other churches have joined two attorneys to form the Brookhaven Coalition for Religious Freedom. Richard Johannesen, a Rocky Point attorney working with the group, said plans are in the works to form an islandwide coalition.

"Religious groups of all persuasions have to band together to remind folks that this country is founded on religious freedom," Johannesen said.

Staff writer Mitchell Freedman contributed to this story.

1) 'It's an attempt to exhaust us physically, emotionally and financially.' - The Rev. William Cook. administrative pastor of Bethel United Pentecostal Church, speaking of Old Westbury's zoning policy 2) 'It's not about the church, per se. It's about a building of that magnitude and the traffic it will attract, disrupting the community's character and bringing down property values.' - Trudy Lauben, Medford Taxpayers Civic Association board member, speaking of Grace Church