A Korean Methodist congregation asked God on Sunday to send it a judge who would side with it in the next phase of its legal battle to build a church in Long Grove.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that Vision United Methodist Church should be satisfied with a smaller sanctuary than what it had in mind.
Citing a federal statute intended to keep municipalities from restricting religious freedom, Vision alleged that in order to control development, the village intentionally annexed the church’s 27-acre site into what was then unincorporated Lake County. The village then declared that designs for a new church complex were too large for the lot.
Congregation shares space
The church, made up of about 140 adults and 80 children, was founded in 1981 as a congregation of the United Methodist Church. It has been sharing space with a Methodist church in Mundelein since outgrowing its former facility in Park Ridge.
Village officials and neighbors rejected a nearly 100,000-square-foot project that included a 900-seat sanctuary, an administration building, a fellowship hall, basketball courts and two parsonages.
They still objected when the church reduced the size of the buildings, removed the parsonages and added single-family homes as a buffer. Both plans failed to meet the guidelines of an ordinance that limits how large assembly halls can be.
“Vision does not offer evidence to rebut the village’s claim that its intent to enact the statute was not driven by religious animus,” U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle wrote in his ruling.
“A church that is 55,000 square feet has ample space to house a congregation of 140 adults and 80 children comfortably,” he added. “This is not a situation where the village has restricted Vision to a one-room building where all the members must stand shoulder to shoulder in order to pray.”
Attorneys for the church said they plan to appeal.
“We are disappointed that the judge’s opinion omitted important facts. We will ask the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take a closer look at the facts and law and reverse his decision,” attorney Andy Norman said in a written statement.
Vic Filippini, the attorney representing Long Grove, praised the judge for not letting emotions influence his ruling.
“It didn’t meet ordinance requirements,” Filippini said. “They never asked us to amend the ordinance. The ordinance was a fairly written, neutral ordinance regulating land uses. The fact that Vision could have built a 50,000-square-foot facility and simply chose not to was really their choice and in fact the judge suggested it was their bad choice.”
Other churches have faced the same struggle as Vision, although the circumstances often vary.
In 2003, Petra Presbyterian Church sued the Village of Northbrook for the right to occupy space in an industrial park in what officials say is a violation of the town’s zoning laws. A federal judge ruled that year that Northbrook has the right to prohibit the church from using the warehouse-like building for worship, but members continue to seek ways to gain access to the space.
And in Glenview, some residents are opposed to the construction of a mosque, though no lawsuit has been filed.
But even more disheartening for the plaintiffs in the Vision case was Norgle’s written opinion which described the congregation as “composed of mainly `American born Chinese.’ ” It was followed by an Internet link to a Chinese church in New York also called Vision Church.
“His opinion expresses that civil rights cases for churches are unwelcome in federal courts,” Han Cho, head of Vision’s church-building committee said in the same statement. “Given that he has problems telling the difference between a Korean church in a Chicago suburb and a Chinese church in New York City, he may have a point.”
Filippini insisted that the judge’s error did not detract from the ruling.
“The decision had nothing to do with who the congregation was or what activities they wanted to do. It was purely a decision based on what kind of development could occur on that property,” he said.
