The Living Waters Bible Church is a small non-denominational church in the little New Hampshire town of Enfield. Services are held in a large room on the second floor of the parsonage also occupied by Pastor Elmer Murray and his family. The house is currently the only permanent structure on the church's 51 acre lot, and is located across Wescott Road (a gravel road) from an equestrian center. Four other houses are situated a bit further down the road, near the point where it ends at the shore of a nearby river. The church has an active youth ministry, and draws 25-30 youngsters to its youth night activities.
In early 2001, Living Waters Bible Church decided to add a radio ministry to its outreach efforts. A construction permit for a 7 watt FM radio station by the Federal Communications Commission on February 9, 2001, and Living Waters Bible Church agreed to provide the programming to be carried on the new station.
Pastor Murray obtained a donated construction trailer for temporary use as a studio, and outfitted it with basic equipment (tape recorders, mixer, microphone, etc.) for radio production. A permanent building to house the studio is planned for an area of the property completely invisible from Wescott Road or any of the nearby homes. The FM broadcast transmitter and antenna tower are located miles away, on a separate property on Shaker Mountain.
In June, 2001, he informally discussed his plans with the Town Planning and Zoning Administrator and was told the studio would be an accessory use to the existing church and parsonage, a permitted use in the R1 district.
But when the Town Planning Board held an informal advisory conceptual hearing on July 11, the church was informed that the studio would not be regarded as an accessory use, and would instead require a variance from the Board of Adjustment. In the face of opposition from neighbors, the Board denied the variance application on August 7, and denied a motion for rehearing on October 9.
On November 7, 2001, Living Waters Bible Church filed suit against the Town of Enfield in Grafton Superior Court, charging that the Board's action was "unlawful and unreasonable," and violated RLUIPA, as well as the U.S. and New Hampshire Constitutions. The town's actions, according to the complaint, violate First Amendment guarantees of free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and of the press.
On November 30, the Town of Enfield filed a Notice of Removal to US District Court for the District of New Hampshire. On January 23, 2002, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty agreed to represent Living Waters Bible Church in the case, joining local counsel Bradford T. Atwood, of the law firm of Clauson & Atwood. An amended complaint was filed on March 15, 2002.
On November 8, 2002, the Town of Enfield signed a court-approved agreement that gives Living Waters Bible Church everything it sought.
The agreement provides that the church's variance use application will be remanded to the Town's Zoning Board of Adjustment, which will hold a hearing on, and approve, the application. The church agrees to submit a site plan application that meets local requirements and state laws and regulations. The agreement provides that programming that originates from the studio will be connected to the Shaker Mountain transmitter by a phone line "or similar technology," and that "the radio studio will normally have one full-time staff worker at the controls for no more than eight hours per day, with no more than four staff workers at the radio studio at any given time."
The case was assigned to US District Judge Steven J. McAuliffe. (Living Waters Bible Church, et al. v. Town of Enfield, Case No. 01 CV-00450-M, U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire)