Wine Country Vintners to Church: ‘We Don’t Want Your Kind Out Here!’
Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship (“The Barn”) is gearing up to file a federal lawsuit against the County of Riverside, CA, in the event the County continues its ban on churches in the Temecula Wine Country, an area that is being expanded from approximately 7,000 acres to over 18,990 acres. A public hearing will occur on Wednesday, August 22, 2012, over the fate of churches in this region. The hearing will position the Wine Country Vintner’s Association against the church congregation and many other Christians from the area.
Trying to be a good neighbor, Pastor Clark Van Wick met with a few vintners in an attempt to appease them, but was told, “We don’t want your kind out here.”
On the heels of taking a stand in support of Chick-fil-A, this land use issue has raised the ire of Christians throughout the County because of the hostility toward Christians in the Wine Country.
Local churches have submitted over 3,200 letters to the County asking to overturn the ban.
The Barn received its nickname because the church started meeting in a dilapidated barn in the Wine Country at a time before the ban on churches was instituted. In 1999, the Barn received permission from the County to remodel the barn and build a new church on the site after a hotly contested public hearing process where the same vintners opposed the building of the church.
Shortly after giving the church approval through the public use permit process in 1999, and under apparent pressure from the area vintners, the County quietly passed a new ordinance banning all churches from the Wine Country. The Barn was grandfathered-in as an existing nonconforming use and completed its approved building in 2002. The Barn was the only existing church in the Wine Country at the time. Although the church could still meet in the Wine Country, it would never be able to expand its facilities any further because of the ban that was in place and no other churches would be able to operate in the Wine Country.
The church just recently learned of the ban on churches when it sought to obtain a permit to expand its church facilities and to build a small private country school for grades K-8. Of course, the expansion of the facilities is now prohibited.
Concurrently with the church’s expansion efforts, the County is holding public hearings on its plan to expand the Wine Country from 7,000 acres to 18,990 acres. The church is simply asking that the County amend its own ordinance and its own expansion plans so that churches, synagogues, other houses of worship, and private schools be designated as permitted uses.
Under the current and future zoning ordinances, Wineries are allowed to have giant weddings, concerts and plays, but no new churches can assemble to worship. And the only existing church, the Barn, is prohibited from expanding. The local vintners, with their political clout, don’t want churches nearby and have influenced the county to zone out churches.
The Barn is represented by Advocates for Faith & Freedom. Robert Tyler, General Counsel for Advocates for Faith & Freedom, stated, “Although religious liberty is often exercised in the form of free speech, as in the incident surrounding Chick-fil-A, it is more often exercised in the form of believers assembling together for the common purpose of worshipping God, holding church services, and educating the youth.” He continued, “We must defend the right to assemble against discriminatory zoning laws and land use regulations or else governmental officials will be able to zone out Christians whenever it is politically expedient.”
Hundreds of area Christians and church members are expected to attend the planning commission hearing. As a sign of thanks, the church will serve Chick-fil-A to all those who attend during the lunchtime break.
Hearing details:
August 22, 2012
9:00 AM
Riverside County Planning Commission Hearing
Temecula City Hall
41000 Main Street
Temecula, CA
Advocates for Faith & Freedom is a national non-profit legal organization whose aim is to protect religious liberty and traditional values in the courts and other public forums. Advocates has handled numerous religious land use cases across the country. Additionally, Advocates is currently defending traditional marriage in the federal case challenging California’s Proposition 8. To learn more about our organization, please visit www.faith-freedom.com.
