American Dream

A church in rural Mollala, Oregon (a Portland exurb), needs to expand. Before spending lots of money drawing up building plans, it wanted to know if it would be granted a permit to build on its own rural land. Under the Religious Land-Use Act of 2000, local governments are not supposed to use land-use laws to regulate religious activities.

So the church asked local planners if the law applied. The planners said no, they couldn't build the church. The church then went to the county commission, which said yes, they could build the church with a building permit. But before they could get a permit, 1000 Friends of Oregon appealed to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, which said no, the church couldn't build.

The church then went to the Oregon Court of Appeals, which said it couldn't make a decision on a "hypothetical event" because the church hadn't applied for a permit yet.

And you wonder why Inc. Magazine declared Portland to be the nation's eighth worst city to do business in. You can't even do the Lord's business here!

(Note: In an earlier case, land-use officials told another Portland church that it could only allow seventy people to worship at one time in its 400-seat sanctuary. Another Oregon church was denied a permit to build unless it agreed to have no more than five weddings or funerals a year.)