Evangelical church is growing, testing zoning laws of Prince George’s County

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — A church trying to expand into Prince George's County, Maryland, pushed the Fourth Circuit to affirm a ruling that local officials denied it a zoning permit in violation of the right to free religious exercise. 

Affiliated with the Nigeria-based Redeemed Christian Church of God, Victory Temple is an evangelical church whose “main mission is to win souls and to plant churches,” according to court filings. When it first opened in Bowie, Maryland, in 2002, it had 500 members; now that number exceeds 2,000. Those growing pains led the church to seek a new location in nearby Prince George’s County, where it purchased 29 acres of land in 2018.

Because of zoning ordinances governing its lot, the church needs a classification change to avoid limits both on how big a building it can build and its access to sewer and water services. Locals soon quashed that plan, however, with complaints at a meeting of the zoning board about traffic-jam fears. 

The church ultimately sued and prevailed after a federal trial in Batimore.

“Victory Temple did not cause the current traffic issues and there is no reliable evidence that the activities of the church would exacerbate those issues,” U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow wrote in September 2020 opinion. “More importantly, the county’s denial of Victory Temple’s application is not the least restrictive means of ameliorating them.”

The county seems doom to lose again after a virtual Wednesday hearing in Richmond, Virginia, on its appeal.

“Chasnow gave you a good shot with a three-day trial, and she knows what she’s doing,” U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King told the county’s attorney, Donald Rea with the Baltimore-based Saul Ewing Arnstein and Lehrm, during the hearing.

“That puts you in the position of an uphill battle,” the Clinton appointee quipped.

Rea nevertheless insisted that the traffic concerns were legitimate. Notwithstanding the county's failure to bring in an expert to assess how Victory Temple’s church construction would affect the area, Rea said it should be enough to rely on testimony from locals, including local police, about the the dangers of the connecting road. 

“The issue here is the impact from 750 cars, and the law says you can draw such a reasonable inference,” the attorney argued, noting the coronavirus outbreak complicated the county's efforts to assess the church's impacts.  

King agreed that the photos of traffic accidents have value, as did testimony from police that included stories of medevac helicopters being used on the area’s dangerous roadways. 

“The traffic concerns have to mean something,” Kind said. “They have to be safe.”   

Meghan K. Casey, an attorney for the church with Gallagher Evelius & Jones in Baltimore, said the county’s reliance on traffic issues failed to meet the strict scrutiny standard of evidence required to circumvent the protections of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, otherwise known as RLUIPA. 

“RLUIPA plainly applies to the county’s decision, in fact it presents the exact circumstances it was designed to protect against,” Casey argued.

“All they had was anecdotal evidence from neighbors in the area,” she continued. “RILUPA’s test is among the strictest in American law; it’s not the sort of thing where you can rely on the government’s say so.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker, an Obama pick, pointed meanwhile to limitations in RLUIPA that make space for adhering to a locality’s master plan. 

The panel was rounded out by U.S. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, a Trump appointee. The judges did not signal when they intended to rule.

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