The story of Flatirons Community Church began in a depressingly familiar way, but wound up a textbook example of the way in which cities and churches can resolve differences over zoning matters that complies with the requirements of RLUIPA and benefits everyone.
Flatirons is a popular and rapidly growing church (1,700 members in 2002, compared with just 200 members in 1999) located in Lafayette, Colorado, a northern suburb of Denver. It currently holds services in what was once a carpet store in the city's Coal Creek Shopping Center. But the space is far from adequate to serve the congregation (9,000 square feet, with a seating capacity of 260 people) and it must hold five services each Sunday in order to accommodate everyone. When a much larger property next door (28,000 square feet, with a seating capacity after remodeling of 1,200) became available (Country General, a feed store, closed its doors in late 2001), the church jumped at the opportunity to lease the property, and drew up a plan to spend approximately $1 million to renovate it for use as a church.
The shopping center is in Lafayette's C-1 zoning district, where churches had been permitted to locate as of right. But when the City Council learned of the church's plans, they quickly changed the zoning ordinance (effective at the end of February, 2002) so that churches would have to go through a Special Use Review in order to locate there.
Undaunted, Flatirons applied for approval of a Special Use Review on February 28, 2002. On March 19, 2002 The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sent a letter to Bonnie Star, Director of Planning for the City of Lafayette, saying that "we believe that denying the Church Special Use Review approval would clearly violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000."
The Becket Fund letter noted that "Flatirons Community Church is a large church with a vibrant ministry that is rapidly growing," and added, "to deny they the freedom to continue that growth is a textbook case of burdening their religious exercise." Noting that city officials had been quoted in the news media as saying they wanted a commercial enterprise on the property instead in order to generate sales tax revenue, the Becket Fund letter cautioned that "although the drive to raise revenue for the City is certainly a rational objective, it does not rise to the level required to justify burdens on religious exercise under the constitution."
Moreover, The Becket Fund pointed out, "by permitting various nonreligious assembly uses—such as, inter alia, bowling alleys, skating rinks, daycare centers, hospitals, indoor amusement, libraries, private or public membership clubs, art galleries and studios—to locate in the C1 zone without SUR approval, the City 'treats religious assembl[ies] . . . on less than equal terms with . . . nonreligious assembl[ies]' in clear violation of RLUIPA. We therefore encourage the City to avoid these legal risks by granting the application."
The city's initial reaction to The Becket Fund letter was to solve its equal treatment problem by voting in early April to require all of the other assembly uses in the C-1 district (i.e., hospitals, libraries, day care centers, etc.) to go through the special review process as well. But the undue burden problem remained, as did a willingness on the part of the church to continue working with city officials, despite their initial hostility.
In May, 2002, an agreement was reached that satisfied everyone. With the city's help, the church acquired a suitable property less than a mile away, and in consideration of the fact that building on the new property would take several years, the city agreed to grant the church a permit to occupy the former Country General property for three years. In the summer of 2002, the mall property was remodeled for use as a church.
Local counsel for Flatirons Community Church is James C. Tienken, of Tienken & Hill.