A California church may have to find a new home after a federal judge upheld a city’s prohibition on houses of worship in a three-block stretch of downtown.
New Harvest Christian Fellowship in Salinas, Calif., has rented space along Main Street for more than 25 years and began looking for a new building when its services outgrew its current location.
The church subsequently bought a spacious building on the same street in 2018 with the intent to hold services there, but the city’s planning commission and then the city council denied the church’s request to use the building as a house of worship, saying a church at that location would upset the city’s goal of stimulating “commercial activity within the City’s downtown,” which has been in a state of decline. The city limited the church to use of the building’s second floor.
The church then sued, claiming the city’s position violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which protects houses of worship from discrimination in zoning laws. Salinas is located east of Monterey and south of San Francisco.
On May 29, federal magistrate judge Susan Van Keulen sided with the city, saying it had not violated RLUIPA and that the church could have found other buildings within the city for its location.
Pacific Justice Institute represented the church and said it will appeal.
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