Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church filed a lawsuit alleging that Collier Township, Pennsylvania, unfairly blocked its plan to build a 13,000-square-foot chapel on land the church has owned for decades.
The church claims the township imposed stricter zoning and conditional use requirements on its chapel than on comparable secular buildings like motels, offices, and car washes, which are allowed as a matter of right.
According to the complaint, township conditions limited core religious activities, including when bells could be rung, who memorial services could be for, and how the chapel could be used.
The church argues the actions violate religious freedom protections under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
A Ukrainian Catholic church in Pennsylvania is claiming that its township discriminated against it by regulating the church’s plans to construct a chapel more than the township scrutinizes secular entities seeking to build similarly sized structures.
Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church, located in Carnegie, says that Collier Township blocked the church’s chapel project several times, first with a zoning ordinance that restricts the construction of church buildings without a conditional use approval, according to the complaint. The church wanted to construct a roughly 13,000-square-foot chapel — which would include a sanctuary, social hall, museum crypt, gift shop, and retreat center — on a 41-acre piece of land it has owned for decades.
The church further says in the complaint that once it applied for rezoning and a conditional use approval, the township refused to approve the entire plan for the chapel and imposed additional restrictions on the building plans, such as determining how long and when the church could ring its bells, for whom the church could hold memorial services, and limiting the chapel’s use only to funerals and memorial services. The complaint argues that the conditions prevent church members from gathering “to pray, worship, observe, or otherwise honor their religious traditions.”
The church says that secular buildings, such as motels, business offices, or car washes, are not required to apply for a conditional use approval under the township’s zoning code. According to the complaint, the church claims that secular activities and commercial structures are allowed “to exist as a matter of right,” while religious locations like chapels and cemeteries are subjected to unfairly heavy regulations.
In addition to discriminating on the basis of religion, the church argues the township violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a law enacted in 2000 to protect churches from being discriminated against through zoning codes and land use regulations.
The church is represented by First Liberty Institute, Troutman Pepper Locke LLP, and the Independence Law Center. According to a First Liberty Institute news release, the church has also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to protect its rights from the zoning ordinances.
“The Township has shown clear discrimination in applying strict limitations on the church but giving free reign to comparable secular activities and neighboring organizations,” First Liberty Institute Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys stated in the release. “Religious freedom means precious little if religious organizations cannot use their property for religious purposes.”