Another zoning loss for Michigan church

In the latest in a string of defeats, another Michigan church has lost an appeal in a case challenging a local municipality’s zoning ordinances.

The suit was brought by the Great Lakes Society (GLS), an ecclesiastical corporation which describes itself as “ministering to persons having varying degrees of chemical sensitivities to common environmental pollutants,” against Georgetown Charter Township in Ottawa County. For the past six years, the GLS has been battling with the township over their denial of a Special Use Permit (SUP) to build a 9,700 square foot facility for worship services and supporting ministries.

The site for this building is zoned as low density residential and the zoning laws allow the building of a church in such an area only if they receive an SUP. But the township, noting that the proposed building would include such things as a health food store, ruled that it was not a church and therefore not eligible for the SUP.

The organization then filed a suit under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which requires states and municipalities to grant exemptions from zoning regulations if they constitute an “undue burden” on the free exercise of religion by an individual or organization.