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Jacksonville church to appeal Photo by Steve Johnson Jacksonville First Presbyterian Church will take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary, Pastor Larry Jung said at a news conference Wednesday. Will tell LUBA city's denial is unconstitutional By MELISSA MARTIN JACKSONVILLE -- This National Historic Landmark town is zoning out churches, First Presbyterian will argue when it takes its case to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. "We think the underlying impact of what the City Council has done in denying the application is that, in theory, someone would be hard put to build a church in Jacksonville," said John Hassen, a Medford land-use attorney hired by the church. The First Presbyterian board of elders voted unanimously Tuesday to appeal the Jacksonville City Council's denial of a conditional use permit to build a 400-seat sanctuary in the Pheasant Meadows subdivision. The church also will argue that the City Council violated the First Amendment's protection of religion when it attempted to restrict church hours of operation and ban weddings and funerals at the new church, said Larry Jung, Jacksonville Presbyterian's pastor for the past 15 years. "Historically, towns and cities across America have welcomed churches into neighborhoods, acknowledging the positive impact they have on their citizens and community," Jung said. "We are determined to defend this tradition and our civil and religious rights as citizens of the United States." Jung said the church will go to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary, which could be a costly battle. KDOV Radio raised $20,000 for the church's legal fees and Applegate Christian Fellowship donated $10,000 to be used for any purpose, not necessarily legal fees, Jung said. The church also will have the backing of The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group based in Virginia. The church may be preparing for a First Amendment fight, but the City Council views the case strictly as a zoning issue, said Jacksonville Mayor Jim Lewis. The council denied the conditional use permit because the church couldn't lessen the impact of traffic and noise on the neighborhood, he said. "I personally feel there is no constitutional appeal," Lewis said. It's not unusual for a LUBA case to appeal to constitutional issues, said Wendy Kellington, a LUBA referee from 1989 to 1995. And it is becoming more common for Oregon churches to take their cases to the three-person board appointed by the governor, she said. "This issue having to do with churches either being denied the ability to expand to meet the needs of membership or being told they no longer can hold services to meet spiritual needs is a growing and tremendous concern in the state of Oregon," said Kellington, a former attorney for Jackson County and now practicing law in Portland. "In land-use planning, local governments are used to applying discretion to deny uses because of neighbor concerns based on a host of things -- from the color of paint to the number of cars generated," Kellington said. "But big activities -- where people congregate to worship, to be married, to say farewell to loved ones in a spiritual way -- are going to generate a lot of traffic," she said. "But they are the kinds of activities protected by the Constitution, so the discretion of the local decision makers is constrained." This will not be the first time the city of Jacksonville has argued a LUBA case about this property, according to Paul Wyntergreen, city administrator. Former Jacksonville Mayor Bob Cecil appealed the city's approval of a proposed 63-home subdivision. The case was sent back to the city nearly three years later. The land changed hands and eventually became the 40-home Pheasant Meadows subdivision. Pheasant Meadows residents knew that a church might be built across the street because developer Chris Galpin wrote a clause in the covenants signed by buyers when they purchased the property, Jung said. His congregation wants to build a new sanctuary because it has outgrown its old one, a 125-seat historic landmark located downtown. They chose the Middle Street property because it's one of the last vacant lots in Jacksonville large enough for a church, he said. The City Council denied the church's permit last week, reversing its January vote to approve the plan. The denial came after the council in February attached to its approval 23 conditions, including three that attracted national media attention. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA