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[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Vision Church plans appeal in property dispute case

Oct. 28, 2005

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Bishop Hee-Soo Jung is
available in the Photo Gallery at http://umns.umc.org.

By Linda S. Rhodes*

CHICAGO (UMNS) - A U.S. District Court judge has ruled against a United
Methodist congregation and the Northern Illinois Annual Conference in
their $10 million lawsuit against the Village of Long Grove.

The church and conference had charged that the village violated the
First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the Religious
Land Use and Institutional Persons Act of 2000 by "maliciously"
preventing construction of a church building.

Vision United Methodist Church, a Korean-American congregation, has been
trying for more than six years to build a church on property it owns in
Long Grove, a suburb 38 miles north of Chicago.

The church has decided to appeal the ruling to the Seventh Circuit Court
of Appeals. The appeal process is expected to take at least a year.

In a mid-October ruling, Judge Charles Norgle, of the Northern Illinois
District, sided with the Village of Long Grove. "There is no evidence in
the record to suggest that the village, through the enactment of the
Public Assembly Ordinance, has endorsed a specific religion, that the
village's stated reasons are disingenuous, or give the impression that
one religion is favored or preferred."

Norgle also said "the maximum square footage allowed by the village does
not constitute a significant burden on religion for First Amendment
purposes." A 55,000-square-foot church would be big enough "to house a
congregation of 140 adults and 80 children comfortably," he said.

The church had proposed a nearly 100,000-square-foot complex that would
have included other facilities in addition to the sanctuary.

"The congregation is really disappointed and a little bit frustrated
because the ruling seems just not to address a lot of the areas they
felt were strong in their case," said the Rev. Arlene Christopherson,
Elgin District superintendent. "The judge indicated that this suit had
no place in federal court because it was a land-use case. He seems to
have completely missed the religious freedom issue."

Andy Norman, lead attorney for Vision Church, said the appeal would
focus "substantively on his (Norgle's) failure to look at the majority
of the record."

Church officials said they were also disturbed that in his decision,
Norgle referred to Vision church as "composed mainly of American-born
Chinese."

"I am very saddened by the cultural insensitivity of Judge Norgle's
ruling," said Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, leader of the Northern Illinois
Conference. "It's very hurtful that the judge is not aware of
differences among Asian cultures. His ruling has caused a great deal of
pain to the members of the Vision Church congregation, who feel as if
they have not even been recognized by the judge. I have to assume that
the judge was just not paying attention to the details of the case."

Jung also said he felt "very sorry" for Long Grove "because the village
is losing an opportunity to serve a wider circle of the community and to
benefit from our nation's growing diversity."

The church must be concerned about a community that is not open to
social change, the bishop said. "We need to continue to educate our own
community not to go the exclusive way, whatever the rationale and not to
take such a defensive role to isolate themselves."

Vic Filippini, Long Grove's attorney, told the Chicago Tribune newspaper
that the church didn't meet ordinance requirements and never asked the
village to amend the ordinance. "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."

The lawsuit was the latest effort in the congregation's six-year
struggle to make Long Grove its church home.

In June 1999, members of Vision Church signed an intent to buy 27 acres
of land in unincorporated Lake County on the condition that the Village
of Long Grove would annex the land and approve the church's plans to
build a worship facility.

During numerous meetings with the Village Plan Commission, the
congregation made extensive revisions to its original architectural
plans to comply with commission requests. In September 2000, after
receiving an informal go-ahead from Long Grove's Plan Commission, the
congregation bought the land at the corner of Gilmer and North Krueger
roads for $1.1 million.

However, the Long Grove Plan Commission spent another year on
negotiations, public hearings and revisions to architectural plans.
Finally, in spring 2001, the village rejected the church's request for
annexation and building approval.

Vision Church then applied to Lake County for a building permit. Just as
county officials were finalizing approval of the church plans, Long
Grove successfully delayed that process and accelerated annexation and
development of property south of Vision Church's land. The village
surrounded the Vision Church property and annexed it. As a result, the
pending final approval of the church's proposal to Lake County became
void.

Upon annexation, the church property was automatically rezoned by Long
Grove to a residential district that allows churches only if trustees
vote to give special permission. In January 2002, Vision Church members
applied again for a special use permit. It was rejected in July 2002.

Long Grove then took steps that church officials said made it impossible
for Vision Church to build a facility that would comply with village
criteria. Among other things, Long Grove amended its zoning codes to
require any church owning more than 20 acres of land to front a state
highway - a requirement that applied only to Vision Church, which had
its property on a county road.

The church filed its lawsuit in August 2003. It was joined in the
lawsuit by the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist
Church and the Alliance Defense Fund, America's largest public-interest
religious-liberty legal alliance.

*Rhodes is director of communications for the United Methodist Church's
Northern Illinois Annual (regional) Conference.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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