Take a Stand With Us!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Dear friend,
The First Amendment states that the God-given right to the free exercise of religion shall not be infringed. Government does not "grant" us our rights, it must be prevented from infringing upon our natural, God-given rights.
As you may already know, for many years we have been planning to build an "Agape Restoration Community" - a Christian independent living community with 30-45 mostly wheelchair-accessible housing units and a community room / chapel: see www.Agape-Restoration-Society.org/ARC/building-the-ARC.htm. We have located a beautiful 8.8-acre hilltop property in the Borough of Trafford, PA, about 20 miles from downtown Pittsburgh, so our architect and I modified our site plan and preliminary building sketches to meet local zoning requirements and we put money down for an Option to Purchase the property.
The property is zoned "R-3 Multiple Family": zones "R-1 Single Family" and "R-2 Mixed-Use" both allow incidental religious use (a church) so our architect stated in our application that if religious use is permitted in R-1 and R-2 zones, it should also be permitted in the less-restrictive R-3 zone. On May 6, 2019, the then-acting building code inspector agreed with this interpretation of the zoning ordinance, approved our architect's site plan, and wrote that we could now apply for a Building Permit. But we were waiting and waiting for clarification of a minor point until the middle of July, with no response from the town manager.
Then we were informed that a new code inspector would be hired. This person decided to refer our application to the town's attorney, who interpreted the R-3 zoning ordinance to mean that if it doesn't explicitly allow incidental religious use, then it is not allowed. So we had to pay a $300 fee to apply for a zoning variance, hire attorneys, and wait again for the Trafford Zoning Board to meet on September 5.
This meeting lasted two hours: I said that the R-3 zoning ordinance does not need to explicitly allow religious use, because U.S. law is based on English "natural law" that whatever is not prohibited is permitted, whereas European law is based on Roman law that whatever is not explicitly permitted is prohibited. Our architect stated that our planned community room/chapel is less than 10% of the floor area of all the buildings and would greatly enhance the attractiveness of our planned community: most independent living, condo, and townhouse developments have some kind of common meeting spaces.
There were questions from the board and objections from the townspeople, both which demonstrated a clear anti-religious bias: we could have birthday parties, pizza parties, common meals, etc. in the community room, but not religious use: "Would you build this community here without a chapel?" I replied that our organization is registered with the I.R.S. as a non-denominational Christian organization and we intend to build a specifically Christian community. "Will you allow Muslims to live in your Christian community?" "Why do you need an 'altar' and 'sacristy'?" "Will you have fixed seating [pews]?" Attorneys for the adjacent townhouse association, which has a swimming pool and clubhouse where their community sometimes holds meetings and parties, spoke against our application for a zoning variance to allow religious use. The Zoning Board decided not to decide that evening, so they announced a new meeting in three weeks.
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The Trafford Borough Zoning Board met again on September 25 to give their decision. They did allow me and others to speak: I said that our attorneys had requested that the following federal law be inserted in the minutes; I gave them a copy and I read the underlined portions of the "Title 42 U.S. Code §2000cc. Protection of Land Use as Religious Exercise." The attorneys for the townhouse association asked if our non-profit organization would pay property taxes on the housing units, and I assured them that we would. Then the board met briefly to make their final decision to not grant our requested variance. In this decision, they flatly disregarded this federal law, which clearly states:
"(b) Discrimination and exclusion
(1) Equal terms No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that treats a religious assembly or institution on less than equal terms with a nonreligious assembly or institution.
(2) Nondiscrimination No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation that discriminates against any assembly or institution on the basis of religion or religious denomination."
The board said they will mail me a printed copy of their decision. At first, I didn't see much sense in trying to fight for our First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. But if we drop the issue, we will have wasted almost five months and several thousands of dollars in architect's and attorney's fees due to Trafford's foot-dragging and resisting. How much more time and money would we have to spend before we could make any headway with the stubborn Trafford Borough? Is it time to look elsewhere? No, we must appeal this clearly illegal decision!
Our architect agrees that this is an unjust decision and that the town is working against its own best interests. Our attorneys advise that we should wait for the written decision and then consider contacting the U.S. Attorney's office in Pittsburgh: when faced with a lawsuit and likely unfavorable decision from the Federal Government, plus fines and legal fees, local municipalities often concede.
I am revising the sketches of our main building to meet standard building codes for an "accessory use" assembly area: equal to or less than 750 sq. ft. and no more than 10% of the area of the building it is located in. This should eliminate any objections about zoning and building codes, as well as our already following federal law.
If that fails to gain local approval, we will make use of the DOJ's Place of Worship Initiative and How to File a Complaint: scroll down to the "Discrimination in Religious Land Use under RLUIPA" section.
So please pray for us and Take a Stand With Us as we take these actions. Do not think - "This doesn't apply to me" because the gradual nibbling away at our free exercise of religion affects every one of us Americans. And please share this message and our ARC website with your friends, especially our little "How YOU Can Help!" leaflets and on social media: let's make this Go Viral!
I CAN'T DO THIS BY MYSELF: I NEED YOUR HELP! So please WRITE US and say you will Take a Stand With US for religious liberty. Thanks in advance!
Yours in Christ,
"Dr. Bob"
Robert D. Hosken, M.Min., D.Min.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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