Seattle Area Bans New Churches, Schools

Seattle Area Bans New Churches, Schools

CNSNews.com
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2001

A slow-growth measure passed this week in King County, Wash., includes a temporary moratorium on all nonresidential development - including new churches and schools.

The measure, intended to prevent suburban sprawl outside Seattle, is especially unpopular with religious leaders, some of whom say the land-use law is anti-church.

King County Councilman Kent Pullen, an opponent of the building moratorium, said it was unconstitutional.

"I feel that it's one of the worst mistakes I've ever seen a legislative body make. In my opinion, what was done was ...a clear violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. We are infringing upon freedom of religion and freedom of assembly with this particular action," said Pullen.

"And not only is it damaging to churches, it's damaging to private schools and church-supported schools, because they're cut out ... as well.

A task force composed of council members, residents and experts will be assembled within 30 days to examine the long-term effects of building large developments in rural areas. The task force will then recommend a permanent land-use policy for rural areas outside Seattle.

King County Councilman Larry Phillips was among those supporting the one-year construction moratorium. According to Gregg Hirakawa, Phillips' legislative aide, the ban covers everything from libraries to fire stations, gas stations and stores.

"Anything that's non-residential [has] size limitations ... it doesn't discriminate between nonreligious or religious," but includes all nonresidential facilities, said Hirakawa.

The author of the slow-growth plan, King County Executive Ron Sims, originally proposed that the building ban include only churches as well as private and parochial schools. But the county's legal staff warned that such a specific building moratorium would raise constitutional concerns, so Sims included government schools in the building ban to get the votes he needed to pass it.

If approved, the ban would cancel plans for new development, but it would not affect any projects that are under way.

Bill Gallant, director of communications for the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, is opposed to the one-year moratorium, but he said it was better than an outright ban on building new churches.

He noted that while the moratorium is in effect, "nothing would be done until ... a task force could be assembled to think about this issue more closely, understand the political as well as the environmental ramifications, and good-thinking people could get together and finally come up with ways to implement these compromises that we were looking for."

Gallant described the moratorium and the task force as the best way "to keep the dialogue going and keep the process moving forward."

He said he hoped to have a representative on the task force that will study the issue.

"I am confident that this task force will come to a fair and equitable solution. I think we're almost there. I think this very arduous process, which started last summer, has shown the public officials the need to consider our needs," said Gallant.

"I believe that the biggest problem from the very beginning of this process is that when they put the plan together, they really didn't consider us at all. I don't think it was malicious. I don't think it was intentional, that they intentionally went out of their way to prevent churches and religious schools from doing what they need to do. I don't think they gave it any thought," Gallant said.

Councilman Pullen notes that the King County Council has allowed a sewage treatment plant to be built in the county's rural area. "And before that, an amphitheater, which would bring in loud and raucous rock concerts in the rural area, which will be very damaging to the agriculture interests nearby.

"And yet they won't allow a church in the rural area so people can worship in their neighborhood. I mean that is absolutely shocking to me. And they never even identified a problem. That was what was all the more disturbing."

Pullen suggested that politics might play a part in preventing churches from being built, because churches "promote values that trouble the elected officials."

According to Pullen, "Some churches have been more active than others in promoting family values and other values, and I believe that certain elected officials are seeking to use land-use weapons as a means of cracking down on churches, and that of course is very disturbing and, in my opinion, very unconstitutional."

As far as the task force goes, Pullen believes it will be stacked with people who want to keep churches out of the rural area. He predicted that the council will extend the moratorium beyond its one-year limit.

"Year after year goes by, causing further damage and hardship to churches and the private schools, and if they ever let the moratorium end, it will be after imposing very onerous regulations as recommended by the task force," Pullen said.

While the King County Council assembles a task force to examine growth in rural areas, it must also invite public comment on the slow-growth measure. Depending on public reaction, the council could take special action to overturn the new-construction moratorium.