Posted on 03/24/2006 6:10:33 PM PST by Coleus
Florida County Wants to Force Churches to Stay Small
Commissioners seek to amend zoning laws to ensure new churches have limited pews.
Pastors and concerned citizens in Palm Beach County , Fla. , are protesting as both unrealistic and unconstitutional a proposed amendment to zoning laws that would limit the size of future church-building projects. County officials maintain residents in some communities have complained about the noise and traffic associated with church expansion. The only way to solve the problem, they maintain, is to keep churches small.
Palm Beach County commissioners have requested that the Planning and Zoning Department draft an amendment to the land development code that would severely limit the size of any future church to a scale based on the density of the neighborhood population. Steve Stewart, senior pastor of Church in the Farms — a conservative Southern Baptist congregation — was one of many who spoke at a public meeting on the matter this week.
"We strongly encouraged them to find better ways to accomplish the same thing," he said. "If they wanted to accomplish some traffic congestion issues, some better traffic accommodations, you can do that with a slightly different code." Current zoning is divided into three tiers: low-density, medium-density and high-density population areas. Under the proposal, a church in a high-density area could cover 75,000 square feet and have 750 seats, while a medium-density area could have 50,000 square feet and 500 seats. Buildings in low-density areas would be limited 25,000 square feet with just 250 seats.
"That 250 seats means everywhere (in the building)," Stewart explained. "If you have a fellowship hall with 100 seats, you can only put 150 in the auditorium." Churches, he said, would be discouraged from buying property in low-density areas because they couldn't develop it. "If this is happening in Palm Beach County , it could be happening in other quickly developing counties throughout various states," Stewart said. "We can't let this become a legal precedent — if this became a precedent, my word, what it could do."
At the public meeting, he asked planners to consider what would happen if a church was a highly effective at ministry. "What if we deliver relevant sermons, we have great worship, we have great children's and youth programs, we have great addiction therapy — we have great ministry, and people drive over from other neighborhoods?" he asked. "And here was their response: 'Well, they can go to church in their own neighborhood.' " Proponents of the amendment say they simply want churches to fit the size and look of their neighborhoods and want to avoid traffic problems every Sunday morning.
"We are totally sympathetic to that," Stewart said. "We understand that we have a responsibility in a county to beautify it and to keep the problems to a minimum. Not one pastor I know would argue that. We have a responsibility to be good neighbors. "But at the same time we have a responsibility to our communities, and if a church happens to be effective at ministry, they are going to attract a crowd."
The proposal doesn't just affect Christian churches, either.
"This affects synagogues, mosques, every house of worship," Stewart said. "They are trying to say this is for all nonprofit assembly, but interestingly it is not for schools or anything commercial. In other words, it doesn't apply to anything they would get tax income from."
TAKE ACTION
If you are a resident of Palm Beach County , please write the county commissioners and urge them not to amend zoning laws to restrict church size. For contact information, visit the CitizenLink Action Center.
Gee, this ordinance was tailor-made for New England! We've got lots of small churches getting smaller all the time -- Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, UCC (Congregationalists, the founders of N.E.) Catholics? They aren't immune either. They close a parish a week somewhere. Of course, it wasn't intended this way. They've just got them Blue-state religion blues.
That county government will be spending a lot of taxpayers dollars defending lawsuits.
"What concerns?"
Scroll back up and read my previous posts.
When my local Roman Catholic church holds a Vega weekend, with beer tents and gambing, that draws 10,000 people... is that covered by First Amendment too?
If my local Baptist church wants to build a bunch of apts in a residential neighborhood, is that covered?
So why would bulding a 10,000-person building in a quiet residential neighborhood somehow a massive liberal conspiracy befitting of the O'Hare hoax email that is making the rounds again?
Quite frankly, I see the legislation as well-considered!
Heck yeah, it tells them that they cannot convert or attract new members over their "government-approved" numbers. That's straight-up anti-constitutional.
In kindness, I suggest you move to the country, but don't expect the church bake sale or fish fry to be inspected by the health dept. It's soooo good!
"In kindness, I suggest you move to the country, but don't expect the church bake sale or fish fry to be inspected by the health dept. It's soooo good!"
Been a pastor in both rural and urban churches. The only time the health inspector showed up was for rural Maple Rapids, MI. They guy showed up w/ a meat thermometer, and started yelling about sneeze shields.
As for the question at hand, when you start a small church in a quiet residential neighborhood you can't expect to stay there when you're having 400, 600, or 1000 a few years later. Most churches do move somewhere else, if for not other reason than the parking concerns.
However, there are always those pastors who believe they are Moses....
Ironic that strip clubs can go almost anywhere but restritions on churches are ok. In my area we have a club that went in right next to a cheerleading school. The club is complete with private offices for "consulting".
Palm Beach County isn't run by the cracker mafia. More like the Upper West Side/Scarsdale in exile set. I know it all too well...
If they're successful this time when next year rolls around they'll probably want to zone all churches out of the county. Isn't it strange that PB citizens complain about the churches but they don't seem to mind the noisy big box stores, malls, etc.
**Florida County (Palm Beach) Wants to Force Churches to Stay Small**
Why is the world would Christ want his church to be small? He died for all.
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
Community and individuality are not opposites. People cannot survive on their own. When the odds are stacked against you, you must rally with the oppressed and hated.
When a growing oppressive regime is taking hold, you must act, otherwise you will soon face your enemy alone and hopeless.
Strength of community is a strength as much as individualism, as long you are willing to face weaknesses in your own community. Ignoring slacking values will mean that you will be rallied against by those you oppress.
Niemöller affirms we must rally against unhealthy organized regimes. We must also stay vigilant with those that appear to be good natured, as all organisation attracts corruption. Niemöller also warns us that if it is you who are corrupt, then you will face a stronger combined force of foe!
Vexen Crabtree
Orlando, USA - With one long, loud blast of a ram's horn, Rabbi Joseph Konikov marked his victory in a four-year fight with Orange County over religious rights.
A federal court's ruling announced Monday sided in his favor, saying that the rabbi can continue to have religious meetings at his house in the Sand Lake Hills neighborhood
http://www.wwrn.org/article.php?idd=20181&sec=35&con=4
There are, by the way, lots of restrictions here. It is the litigation capital of America, home of the tobaco lawsuits and the 2000 election recount. A British company wanted to build a research facility that would bring 10,000 jobs. After a couple of years, the county commission completed their due diligence and voted yes. Immediately enviornmentalists took it to court, and we finally lost out. There is a lot of anti-growth, pro-swamp sentiment here. But I told my son that we seem to be going through a phase of extreme busybodiness, as if we didn't already have plenty of rules.
I'll defer to you on that, as most of my experience is in the less cosmopolitan areas of Florida...(cosmopolitan and Florida in the same sentence?)
But I still stand by my premise; Florida seems then to be a loose confederation of various elite cabals that apparently don't to answer all too much to the governor. The brutal rule of legalism imposed from the top down is clearly meant to keep "the regular people" in line.
A pretty sick caste system.
well, let's see. I lived on the west coast for 20 years. Just before I left, I was actively involved in the Republic Party of Pinellas County. That God-forsaken little piece of hell on earth, the international home of the Church of Scientology and the notorious jurisdiction that starved Terri Schiavo to death, voted Republican for the first time in 16 years, coincidentally, the year I worked on the campaign.
Having done the distasteful task of outlining my credentials in the sketchiest terms, I reiterate: Florida is out of control. And if "liberals losing at every point" means the Sheriff's Department arrests anyone who tries to bring water to a starving disabled woman, during the second gubernatorial term of the Republican president's Republican brother, pardon me if I am publicly dubious about what sort of "progress" is being made there by all this liberal "losing."
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