Months of meetings, public hearings and discussion over proposed zoning changes in St. Paul impacting religious institutions’ ability to serve people in need — and even teach religion — were resolved Jan. 19 with a City Council vote that met the concerns of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and other faith groups.
“The churches got together, united, and proposed reasonable alternatives to the city, as opposed to that disastrous first attempt by the city,” said Joseph Kueppers, an attorney and the archdiocese’s chancellor for civil affairs.
Working with the city alongside Muslim, Lutheran, Jewish and Protestant brothers and sisters led to clear and enforceable zoning rules that benefit church groups, their neighbors and city officials, Kueppers said.
In 2015, First Lutheran Church north of downtown St. Paul sued the city over restrictions on leasing its church basement to Listening House, a day-time care center for homeless and low-income people. Those restrictions, prompted by neighbors upset with people walking around the neighborhood, severely hampered Listening House, officials said. A settlement, reached in 2019, allowed Listening House to stay and to resume operations as before the lawsuit.
The settlement also required the city to study its zoning ordinances and improve the process for land use applications for religious organizations. But the city’s proposed changes, first made public in October, left parishes and other religious entities worse off than before the lawsuit, Kueppers said.
The proposals included a ban on construction of additions or new buildings for the primary purpose of conducting a “religious institution accessory use,” such as sheltering the homeless, feeding the hungry, providing day care for children and adults, and even creating facilities for religious education, opponents of the measures said.
City proposals included requiring a conditional use permit for social and community services conducted on more than 1,000 square feet of floor space. That is the size of some conference rooms, opponents said. And it was unclear whether even current uses of that amount of space would require a conditional use permit, they said.
Kueppers and others argued that the city’s proposals would violate the U.S. Constitution’s religious protections as well as a federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. That law prohibits the government from imposing land use regulations that create a substantial burden on religion, unless there is a compelling governmental interest. If regulations are deemed necessary, they must be the least restrictive possible.
Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul organized an Oct. 21 Zoom meeting with St. Paul City Planner Bill Dermody prior to the city Planning Commission’s Oct. 29 public hearing on the proposals. That Zoom meeting led to positive changes to the proposals and another Interfaith Action Zoom meeting with Dermody Nov. 16. The City Council held a public hearing Jan. 12 and the council’s vote came seven days later.
The ordinances, now in full effect, eliminate the ban on new construction, allow religious groups to provide overnight shelter for up to 25 adults and minor children in their care, and include religious institutions among places where food shelves can be located.
Preschools are now clearly included among child care centers, and the definition of religious institutions includes not only churches, chapels, synagogues and temples, but buildings directly associated with religious exercise such as religious education, including other gathering spaces and education facilities.
“The city now has a clear, comprehensible zoning ordinance going forward that’s going to be easier to enforce and be understandable by the churches, surrounding neighbors and city officials,” Kueppers said. “This is a good result.”
