Idaho church building owner sides with DOJ in zoning case

The city of Troy used parking concerns as an excuse to reject Christ Church’s permit to meet and worship in a building downtown, building owner Matt Meyer told WORLD Wednesday evening. Meyer spoke with WORLD after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the city on Christ Church’s behalf. Federal prosecutors accused city officials of discriminating against the church led by the well-known Reformed conservative theologian, Douglas Wilson.

Wilson was initially very involved when the issue began in 2022, but on Wednesday told WORLD that the campus in question is now an independent congregation named Christ the Redeemer. However, Wilson’s church still listed it as a Christ Church campus on its website as of Thursday afternoon.

How did we get here? Meyer, an elder at Christ Church, said that at the time, his church wanted to plant a campus in Troy, about 20 minutes away from Christ Church’s main Moscow campus. The Troy congregation first started to meet in a local bar, but the city issued a cease and desist order saying the church needed a permit since the bar was in the commercial district, Meyer said. The church started looking for better locations, and considered a local high school, a refurbished gym, and a local community center. The high school refused and the refurbished gym also declined, citing the need to host tournaments on Sundays. The community center’s policy bars it from renting to religious or political groups, Meyer explained. The church also considered purchasing rural property and building on it, but ultimately determined that option to be too time-consuming and expensive, he added.

Around this time, Meyer bought and refurbished an old bank building in downtown Troy with the plan of renting half to a local business and the other half for use as an events space. He suggested that the church start meeting in the events space area. Leaders vetted all other properties, and determined that Meyer’s building was the easiest, fastest, cleanest option, that also met the congregation’s needs, Meyer said.

Meyer said his building was located in the same commercial district as the bar, so he sought the necessary conditional use permit. The city council held a public hearing to obtain feedback from residents before issuing the permit, and ultimately denied the necessary permit.

Troy violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, known as RLUIPA, when it denied the church’s zoning application, according to the DOJ’s Tuesday filing. RLUIPA protects religious groups from discrimination through unnecessarily burdensome or unequal application of land use regulations.

What does the city of Troy have to say? City Attorney Todd Richardson insisted that religion played no role in the city council’s decision. A majority of the residents who voiced concerns cited the negative impacts on traffic flow and potential parking issues, he told WORLD during a Wednesday interview. Richardson explained that the church’s intended building was located in a turn-of-the-century-inspired walking district downtown. There’s no off-street parking in the commercial zone, so church attendees would be parallel parking along the state highway and in nearby neighborhoods, he said. The church also had the opportunity to appeal the council’s decision, and chose not to, Richardson added.

How is the church responding to concerns about parking and traffic? Parking was a convenient excuse for the city to deny the church’s permit, Meyer said. He insisted the street parking downtown is completely empty every Sunday morning because the street sweepers clean every Saturday night. Main Street traffic is dead on Sundays, and the church took videos to prove it, he said. There are about 80 spots downtown, and the church has between 30 to 40 families, he said. Most of the congregation walks to church anyway because it’s such a small town and most live close by, he added.

Meyer said he attended the hearing where the city council heard feedback from residents and remembered a number of people objecting to the church’s beliefs. A few people brought up traffic, but people seemed to be more concerned with the church and its beliefs, he said. People described the church as divisive or aired grievances with Wilson’s teachings, and these sentiments were always met with applause, Meyer recalled. He also denied Richardson’s claim that the church failed to pursue an appeal on the council’s decision. Meyer said the church did appeal, but the appeal ultimately failed.

When did the DOJ get involved? After the council rejected the permit, someone brought the RLUIPA to Meyer’s attention, and he contacted the DOJ. Meyer said he didn’t expect his small-town church to actually hear back and was surprised when prosecutors replied, asking for more details on the case. The DOJ told city officials that it was investigating the issue around the summer of 2023, which precipitated an informal truce between the church and the city. Local officials wanted to lay low, so the church has been meeting in the contested space for over a year now without issue, Meyer said. The church wasn’t told ahead of time that prosecutors were planning to federally file on their behalf, the elder noted. Everything he learned about the lawsuit was after the filing, from social media or people texting him, Meyer said.

Meyer added that the legal battle means more than just worshiping downtown. The church feels it's very important for Christians to worship where they live, Meyer explained. God says to love your neighbor, but it’s hard to do that when your church is an hour away, he added.

Dig deeper: Read my initial report on the case for more background.