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You wouldn't ordinarily hear the Village of Lansing Planning Board debating freedom of religion.  But due to an omission in current Village zoning law they did just that in anticipation of an expected request for the Vineyard Church to rent the former Bishop's Hardware Store space in the Small Mall.  The mall is in a high traffic commercial zone of the village, and while the law for that zone allows various kinds of public assembly by special permit, religious assembly is not one of them. 

"Our high traffic commercial zoning does not allow for churches in commercial areas," said Planning Board Chairman Ned Hickey.  "It allows it in medium density areas, but not in high traffic commercial areas.  So we're kind of between a rock and a hard place here.  How do we approve a church, or how do we not approve a church and get stuck violating Federal laws."


That law is the 'Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act' that was passed by Congress in 2000.  "Congress found that the right to assemble for worship is at the very core of the free exercise of religion," says the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Web site.  "Religious assemblies cannot function without a physical space adequate to their needs and consistent with their theological requirements. The right to build, buy, or rent such a space is an indispensable adjunct of the core First Amendment right to assemble for religious purposes. Religious assemblies, especially, new, small, or unfamiliar ones, may be illegally discriminated against on the face of zoning codes and also in the highly individualized and discretionary processes of land use regulation."

The issue might never have been raised but for an inquiry from Vineyard Church members about renting the Small Mall store front.  The congregation has been facing the same issue many area churches have been challenged with -- they are outgrowing their space.  "We've been portable for most of the past nine years," says Lead Pastor Bob Wilson.  "We've been renting space on Sunday.  Moving chairs for nine years has gotten tiresome.  We've been meeting at the Catholic school downtown, renting space from them on Sunday.  We've gone to two services and outgrown that space, so we're looking to get something of our own that's a little bigger."

Wilson says that during the school year 250 people want to come to services, and the Small Mall space fits that need as well as being in a desirable location.  "Our target area for where we'd like to be is somewhere between the mall and downtown Ithaca, on the Route 13 corridor," he says.  "We don't want to be out in the wilderness.  We really want to be where people are living, and in the community.  This is in our area of where we'd like to be."

Neither Planning Board members nor Village Attorney David Dubow could remember why religious assemblies were left out of the law, or whether it was an intentional omission or not.  If intentional, Dubow says that the Village is within its rights to zone that way.  "Federal law doesn't preclude the Village from precluding a religious use in a particular area," he said.  "It does preclude you from having a restriction that would not permit a religious use throughout the Village.  Obviously that's not the case."

That left the board with three questions.  First did the members actually object to a religious use in a high traffic commercial zone?  If not, how can they legally allow it?  And if allowed what conditions must be met?

"The thing I found particularly bothersome about the commercial high traffic (zone), is that we single out places of assembly as religious facilities as the one place you don't permit in commercial high traffic," said Code Enforcement Officer Ben Curtis.  "I have no problem that it's not included in the Business and Technology Park or the Human Health Service district, because no other places of assembly are permitted there for obvious reasons.  But this is the one place where places of public assembly are permitted."

Board members agreed, including Phil Dankert who noted he has seen a sign at the Clarion Hotel on Sundays advertising that a church group is meeting there.  Board members were unsure whether that gathering is legal, but agreed that it should be.  Rather than create special exceptions for this one church, the board voted to recommend a change in the zoning law to the Village Board of Trustees.  Hickey said he would draft a formal request to the Trustees, and Dubow pledged to try to come up with an amended law before their next meeting this Monday.

In order to comply with laws for amending a law, it was estimated that the soonest the church can get a permit for the space would be late July.  But Hickey encouraged them to informally work with Curtis and the board on a specific plan that will have to be approved before a permit can be issued.

"There should be some defined plan as to what the religious uses are going to be," Dubow noted.  "Religious uses can include things other than having a service on a Sunday.  You commonly see day care or religious school for kids that may be during the week.  I think that would all be part of the plan submitted for the purposes of a special permit so you can manage the environmental issues, the traffic issues, the safety issues.. all the other things that you do with every other special permit."


Wilson and church member Tim Yaeger say they are already working on the key issues, especially parking.  Church officials are speaking to neighboring businesses and apartment owners to see if they can be allowed to use spaces in other nearby parking lots.  "That's what we're working on right now," Yaeger says.  "We spoke with all the restaurant owners and business owners at the Small Mall, and none of them had a problem.  Probably 30% of them are closed on Sunday mornings or Sundays altogether, and the other tenants in the mall didn't have a problem with it.  A lot of them don't open until a little bit later on Sundays."

He added that during the school year part of the congregation is bussed from Cornell, somewhat alleviating the parking issue..

Wilson says they are already planning changes to the space.  "I don't think we'll make substantial changes to the outside of the building," he says.  "We'll be working on making a bigger space for the main assembly on Sunday.  Setting up some rooms for the kids and some office areas, and we'll probably have a larger cafe area for meetings or hang out times.  We want to clear out some of the poles in the main area so that we could have a room that will allow us to grow as we are there for the term of our lease.  I wouldn't say it will be a major overhaul, but hopefully we will make it look a lot nicer."

"We've got a road we have to follow," Hickey said.  "There are no objections to us recommending to the Board of Trustees to ad church use to the public assembly provisions.  In the interim I don't know of a reason that the parties involved can't begin to put the plans together if they want to take the time and effort to make some kind of preliminary presentation to this board."

If the Trustees agree to amend the law next Monday it will be subject to a public hearing before they can vote it into law.  Once that is done church officials will submit a formal request for a special permit to allow public religious assembly in the space.  With the Planning Board supporting the idea, it is possible that the church will be opening in Lansing by mid to late summer.

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