Group Sings Praises of a Moratorium on Churches

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has come up with a new commandment: Thou shalt not open new churches.

Well, at least not for 45 days. And specifically not in Rowland Heights.

To hear some residents tell it, the San Gabriel Valley community of 49,000 is blessed with too many religious institutions, with churches popping up everywhere. In the last five to seven years, residents say, church after church has moved into existing buildings, from strip malls to homes, or erected whole new houses of worship on what were once pastures.

“Nobody is against churches. But there comes a point when they are taking over residential neighborhoods,” said Russell Bell, president of the Rowland Heights Coordinating Council, an advisory body to county supervisors. “The traffic and noise is depressing house values and impacting the quality of life.”

Supervisor Don Knabe answered the council’s prayers last week by persuading three fellow board members to enact the moratorium on new religious institutions. The measure also halts expansion of existing facilities in the community’s residential and agricultural areas.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich was the lone dissenter, saying he was uneasy with preventing construction of a church.

During the 45-day moratorium, county planners will try to determine just how many religious institutions exist within the 9 square miles of the unincorporated, multiethnic suburb 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The planners will study whether to rewrite the area’s zoning and land-use laws.

Knabe said some of the churches are now seven-day-a-week operations with housing and food services.

“These places of assembly were zoned to provide residents with some places of worship,” he said. “Unfortunately, some have been transformed into other uses, which are not consistent with the current zoning or the character of the neighborhood.”

County May Be at Odds With New Federal Law

County officials say that in the thriving community--known for modern homes and a population that is mostly Asian American--the proliferation of churches is the No. 1 concern they hear about.

Knabe said he simply wants county departments to comply with zoning regulations.

Critics, however, warn that the county could be running afoul of a new federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which makes it more difficult to keep churches, temples and mosques out of neighborhoods.

The law, signed by then-President Clinton last year, prohibits any local land-use and zoning regulations that substantially burden the exercise of religion, unless municipal officials can demonstrate a compelling government reason to justify their actions. The law was supported by a coalition of 60 religious and public-interest groups, including the American Jewish Congress, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and American Civil Liberties Union.

“This moratorium and efforts to restrict religious institutions using zoning have no rationale under the law,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which represents religious organizations in court. He said his Sacramento-based group will provide legal representation to any church that is impeded by the county from operating or expanding.

Dacus said many of the new churches in Rowland Heights are those with ethnic minority congregations, just the kind the law was designed to protect.

“Many ethnic, minority-based churches are often completely unaware of their rights,” Dacus said. “Certain prejudices often impact these churches.”

Nationally, more than a dozen lawsuits have already been filed by religious institutions against local governments under the new law.

National League of Cities officials say the law effectively elevates religious facilities above other landowners and allows them to thwart local regulations.

During the last 10 years, zoning conflicts involving houses of worship have become a contentious issue throughout Southern California. A Culver City mosque opened in 1999 after a marathon dispute over everything from traffic to concerns over its Islamic architecture and whether its lavish marble would create a glare in the daytime.

Rowland Heights residents say their community is a draw for religious institutions because the area has lax zoning and poor code enforcement.

The area coordinating council was reestablished a few months ago--after lying dormant for a decade--because the county was not addressing such issues aggressively, residents said.

Angie Valenzuela, a field deputy in Knabe’s Rowland Heights office, said the problem is not so much enforcement as the fact that large chunks of the community are still zoned for agriculture--a holdover from the days before huge swaths of homes quilted the area.

Some disgruntled locals, however, have dubbed part of Fullerton Road “the Boulevard of Churches.”

“In a few blocks of Fullerton we’ve got three or four places,” Bell said.

Parking Difficulty at Strip Mall Reported

Christian Zion Church is seeking to build a three-story structure and wants to allow people to live there, Bell said. Church officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Living Word Christian Church, which caters to Mandarin speakers, fills three storefronts in a Fullerton Road strip mall.

The church draws so many Sunday worshipers, Bell said, that the parking lots of nearby restaurants fill up, leaving no room for customers, Bell said. Church officials deny the claim and say they have heard nothing about the county’s moratorium.

Edward Griffith, a member of the building committee at the Church of the Nazarene on Fullerton Road, said the temporary moratorium won’t affect his congregation and that, so far, the county has not impeded its additions.

He said that when the church got county approval for a day care facility and sanctuary three years ago, there was no opposition. Griffith said he is amazed that anyone considers a church a nuisance.

“There are probably more bars and liquor stores locally than churches,” he said.