Tiny congregation’s attorney: Lawsuit ‘not over’
Alleges Homewood, Hazel Crest zoning is against churches
A seven-member church based in a home in Markham has federal lawsuits pending against two Southland communities for not allowing it the opportunity to move into buildings.
The Word Seed Church filed a lawsuit against Homewood Aug. 24 alleging unreasonable limitations and substantial burden provisions of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and challenged a municipal ordinance as being unconstitutionally vague.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman dismissed the lawsuit Nov. 16, stating the church did not adequately explain how an unpurchased and unknown property is important to the church’s religious mission and beliefs.
“Homewood has yet to deny the Church a special use permit, and the Church has only offered speculation as to its irreparable harm,” she wrote.
However, Coleman granted the church’s attorney, John Mauck, the opportunity to refile.
“That case is not over,” Mauck said. “We’re waiting on the ruling on that motion.”
Homewood attorney Christoper Cummings said attorneys provided by the village’s insurance carrier asked the judge to stand by her initial ruling.
“There is nothing else for us to do,” Cummings said. “We think the judge made the right decision, and that’s about it.”
While waiting for that decision, Mauck and the church have filed a lawsuit against Hazel Crest alleging religious discrimination regarding the purchase of property there. The lawsuit claims the church learned the village’s zoning ordinance only allows churches in three residential areas, and only as a special use.
“In order to establish a church in a residential district, the zoning ordinance subjects churches and other religious assemblies to an onerous, expensive, time consuming, and overly discretionary process” to obtain a special use permit, the lawsuit states.
Hazel Crest attorney John
Murphey said towns are struggling and fighting to maintain a commercial tax base, and need to have taxpaying businesses locate in parts of town that are within tax increment financing districts.
“Ordinarily, in any kind of a zoning case, the lawsuit relates to a specific piece of property,” Murphey said. “This case is unusual because this church does not even have a contract and doesn’t say it has a contract. It is trying to get a wall-towall exemption to allow churches in any place that has a business zoning.”
The lawsuit states the church found property for sale at 1822 W. 170th St., in Hazel Crest, that would meet its needs, but the property is in a B-1 zone where churches and other religious assemblies are not permitted.
Murphey said the church has been looking in an area that does not allow a nontaxpaying entity. He said the church has an eye on property in a TIF district.
Within such a district, property tax revenues for all government bodies are frozen at current levels, and communities use any increase in property tax revenue, the increment, to pay for public improvements such as new streets, sidewalks, water and sewer lines or offer incentives to developers.
In a response to U.S. District Judge Henry D. Leinenweber, who is reviewing arguments, Murphey said the lawsuit is “an inappropriate attempt to judge-shop [the] plaintiffs’ baseless claim.”
Word Seed Church Pastor Keinon Washington issued a statement saying the lawsuit seeks to stake a claim for other religious organizations as well.
“I felt it necessary, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, to file this lawsuit not just for The Word Seed Church, but for our brothers and sisters in Christ who may not know how or understand what is needed to subdue and possess their own land when many municipalities and cities hinder the fulfillment of the charge by Christ for churches,” Washington said in the statement.
The lawsuit states the church was founded in 2010 in Harvey by previous pastor Katherine Brownlee and is now meeting in Washington’s home in Markham, but that property is for sale. He has moved to Orland Park and his new home is not large enough for the church members to meet.
The lawsuit also says the state of Illinois will not reinstate the church’s sales tax exemption, causing the ministry to pay sales tax on any purchases.
“The problem my client is facing is a common one for small churches,” Mauck said. “The vast number of independent churches in this country start out with four or 10 people meeting at a home. Some disband. Some go on to say, ‘we need more space.’ They want to grow, and friends and family come in and it becomes 25 to 30 people and they need a more permanent meeting place.”
Mauck said that there is a lot of legal discrimination that cities and villages may not realize is on the books.
“The big churches that have been around, the Presbyterians and the Catholics, have their own buildings,” Mauck said. “They don’t have that problem of trying to find a building. But the minority churches, the Korean immigrants, the Hispanics, African Americans, a lot of cities don’t want to encourage the little guys. Hazel Crest particularly kept their ordinance very restrictive.”
Murphey was Hazel Crest’s attorney in 2010, when the River of Life Ministries sued because it wanted to relocate in a building in a zoned business district. U.S. District Judge Joan B. Gottschall decided in favor of the village.
“I fought the same fight over 10 years ago and we won,” he said. “It was a different church but the same legal principles. To have churches to get a complete exemption from the normal business zoning district regulations is not consistent with law and it would be horrible for our municipalities.”