No assembly allowed

When Steven Lee met with Santa Ana, Calif., city planners two years ago, he left confident that his church’s plan to purchase and use property for a worship center would face no roadblocks. Yet today, after closing on the property, the church’s building sits idle because the city denied a permit to use it as a “religious assembly.”

Lee is secretary for Anchor Stone Christian Church, which grew out of a 2018 in-home prayer group that sought to spread the gospel to first-generation Chinese Americans in Santa Ana and Orange County. But the church quickly outgrew its home setting.

Anchor Stone identified a building nestled in a suburban office park that could be renovated for a worship center and church office. Leaders approached city planners in August 2022 to determine whether its proposed use would be permitted.

Lee said officials didn’t raise any objections to the church’s plan for the property. “So we’re thinking that, OK, then we’re just sending our application to the city without hesitations,” he recalled.

That’s when trouble began. Despite the seeming green light from city planners, the planning commission declined to approve Anchor Stone’s permit, noting only that “assembly” was not permitted under the current zoning. An appeal to the City Council was also rebuffed—even after church attorneys raised religious liberty concerns under both the First Amendment and a 2000 federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).

Frustrated by the denials and facing expenses and losses it says amount to more than $575,000, the church on Oct. 24 fired off a letter to the city’s planning department head. Anchor Stone’s attorneys contend the permit denial has resulted in lost income from the contributions of members who tired of waiting and left the church and the expenses of renting other facilities for worship and of maintaining the vacant property and paying taxes on it. They asked that the city immediately grant the church’s conditional use permit and compensate it for its loss—or face a lawsuit.

Under RLUIPA, governments are prohibited from implementing land-use regulations that impose “a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person [or] … religious assembly” unless the government has imposed the burden to further “a compelling governmental interest” using the least restrictive means possible. According to Ryan Gardner, an attorney with First Liberty Institute, the city failed to meet that standard.

“One of the really ironic things about this is that there’s literally a church across the street,” said Gardner, referring to Compass Bible Church. “I think just common sense would say, if there’s a church across the street, then surely it’s OK to have a church here as well.”

The city has tried to deny a permit to a religious entity before. Just last year, the city settled a lawsuit brought by Micah’s Way, a Christian homeless ministry, after the U.S. Department of Justice intervened in support of the nonprofit. Under the settlement, Santa Ana finally agreed to give the ministry a permit for a building also in an area zoned “Professional.”

“What we have here is a city that apparently is not getting the message about the seriousness of First Amendment and federal rights,” Gardner said.

Lee trusts God will lead the church through the dispute. “We want to spread the gospel in the area,” he said. “I believe that’s what Father gives us permission to do.”