PETER MONSEES / THE RECORD A recent service at Englewood's Community Baptist Church, which will soon present plans to the city for a $9.5 million, 700-seat building.
When God comes before the planning board, the results are often less than rapturous.
Churches, synagogues and mosques are like other developers: To get what they want, they hire savvy lawyers, mollify anxious neighbors and sometimes fight off lawsuits.
But houses of worship also are tax-exempt. That makes them problematic for many North Jersey towns starved for revenue and leery of overdevelopment.
More and more towns are grappling with the problem of religious construction. Churches and synagogues are generally considered beneficial institutions, but they don't pay for municipal services. They draw traffic and crowds. In places like Englewood, their efforts to expand have led to neighborhood opposition and costly court battles.
In Wayne, a Muslim group sued in July after the township tried to condemn the land where it wants to build a mosque. In Clifton, a zoning-variance dispute has delayed construction of House of Fire Christian Church on Grove Street, in a residential neighborhood. In Haworth, a Syrian Orthodox congregation sued after the Planning Board put limits on how much church property the congregation could pave over. The trial starts in October.
Englewood: 45 religious congregations, one for every 578 residents. Hackensack: 52 religious congregations, one for every 750 residents. Teaneck: 48 religious congregations, one for every 812 residents. Wayne: 36 religious congregations, one for every 1,500 residents.
Englewood: 63 tax-exempt churches and charities, or 2.7 percent of tax base Teaneck: 73 tax-exempt churches and charities, or 2 percent of tax base. Hackensack : 76 tax-exempt churches and charities, or 1.6 percent of tax base.
"I'm seeing a tremendous amount of bias against houses of worship," said David Watkins, a Closter lawyer who often represents congregations in land-use disputes.
"I think it's a combination of loss of tax revenue and the concept of NIMBY -- not in my back yard," he said. "Everyone wants to go to church, but they don't want the church next to them."
Englewood, with 45 congregations for 26,000 residents, may be the religious capital of Bergen County. The city is now considering four proposals for new church buildings, one from an out-of-town congregation.
And the city recently approved the expansion of its biggest synagogue, Congregation Ahavath Torah, and is in a legal battle with the East Hill synagogue over outdoor events.
"This has become a central meeting ground for a lot of houses of worship," said Ken Albert, the city planner.
If approved, the religious construction proposed for Englewood would absorb 12 residential properties, eventually pulling them from the tax rolls.
The prospect has some residents saying enough is enough.
"How much can we accommodate before it's not Englewood anymore?" said Laurie Kitts, who lives near vacant land where a Korean Presbyterian congregation wants to build.
The church, Han Moory, wants to leave Ridgefield Park and build a 300-seat, three-level church on Palisade Avenue near The Dwight-Englewood School. The church would remove a single-family house next door and install a parking lot.
"It's turning this whole area basically into parking lots and large structures, where it used to be just a residential area," Kitts said. "Our property values will definitely go down."
But planning experts say it's impossible to estimate how houses of worship affect property values or local taxes, because each town and situation is different.
"It would be absolutely wrong to say a church or synagogue or hospital is hurting us because they're not paying taxes," said David Listokin of the Rutgers University Center for Urban Policy Research.
"That's arithmetically correct, but it just misses the big picture," he said, because these institutions make communities attractive and can actually add to property values.
But some Englewood residents wonder if too many churches is too much of a good thing.
"To the extent they take land off the tax rolls, it's certainly harmful to the taxpayer," said Norm Davis, a former Englewood councilman.
But Davis and other residents said they doubted anything could be done. "It's very hard to be anti-church, politically," Davis said.
Furthermore, local governments have their hands tied by a 2000 federal law, said Stuart Meck, a Rutgers planning expert. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act prohibits governments from changing zoning laws in a way that could impose a "substantial burden" on houses of worship.
If residents can't keep a house of worship out, they often fight over nitty-gritty details: how high a dome can be or how much parking a synagogue must provide.
"There's no animosity for any one faith. It's just that residents don't want the backing up of cars and the environmental consequence of these institutions," said Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes.
Near the Tenafly border, neighbors are complaining about the proposed expansion of the Englewood Assembly of God, a growing Pentecostal congregation. Traffic and parking on West Ivy Lane on Sundays is already oppressive, said Timothy Wedeen, a neighbor.
"It's a major inconvenience -- pulling out of your driveway, you're almost taking your life into your own hands," he said. "If it's a disaster now, I don't see how increasing the capacity will alleviate the situation."
The church wants to tear down its 42 year-old building and rebuild with 330 seats, 17 classrooms and a new sound system.
Wedeen said that would create a "mini bergenPAC" that might be used for concerts or a preschool. "If you build it they will come," Wedeen said.
Timothy Harris, the pastor, testified before the Planning Board that the congregation has no plans to recruit more members or to start a school. Nevertheless, the denomination is growing, adding 58 churches in New Jersey in the 1990s.
"We are a multinational, multiracial church," Harris said. "Nationally, those are the churches that tend to be growing the best."
Another rapidly growing Pentecostal movement is the Church of God of Prophecy. The Englewood congregation lost its rental space to downtown development in 2005. Now, the 110-member group wants a permanent home and has purchased a house at 234 Tenafly Road.
The house was the home of a former mayor and should not be knocked down, said Will Lee, chairman of the Englewood Historic Preservation Advisory Committee.
"I'm at my wit's end," said the pastor, Bishop Winston Christian. "If they deny that application, I'm taking them to court."
Englewood has more houses of worship per capita than either Teaneck or Hackensack, but no one knows exactly why.
Officials point to the city's long-established ethnic diversity, which has given birth to African American churches, synagogues and even a mosque.
Property prices in Englewood's less-affluent 3rd and 4th wards also have played a role, city planner Albert said.
"Land is still more affordable [there] than Cresskill, Dumont, Oradell, many of the Northern Valley towns," Albert said. Churches have clustered there as a result.
The Rev. Lester Taylor of Community Baptist Church said his church has actually been a residential magnet, drawing committed citizens to the city.
"People have moved to Englewood because of our church," Taylor said. "People have hesitated to take job transfers because it would involve leaving the church."
Community Baptist has grown from 400 to 1,700 members since Taylor arrived in 1993. It has three Sunday morning services, lines to get inside and members from as far away as Brooklyn and Vineland.
Soon, the church will present plans to the city for a $9.5 million, 700-seat building -- scaled down from an initial plan of 1,500 seats.
Taylor said he doesn't anticipate much local resistance. "We're a strong presence in the community," he said. "The city of Englewood has been great to us."
