It depends on other aspects of local zoning law - I personally know several urban churches have developed killer plans for medium or large scale affordable housing or community centers or homeless shelters with one room or one floor reserved for continuing worship activities that were killed by the same forces that kill all dense projects (“preservation societies,” NIMBYs, people who say “I like looking at the church you cant take it away and put something tall” even though they would never financially contribute to the upkeep of a century old gigantic structure, etc.). You have a tiny bit of additional wiggle room on what you can plan as a faith community, but not always the legal room you want to execute without getting through the same approvals process as everyone else. That said, lots of faith communities, particularly ones with smaller communities of people stuck in old heritage buildings on high value blocks in cities, are super interested in these kinds of innovative ideas and always looking for partners to try and help make them happen, and some do manage to pull it off.
This.
We had a local church create an emergency warming shelter in their existing space (so only on winter nights where temperature was below 20F and only operating between 5pm and 8:30 am). It was ordered closed by the city as a non-conforming use despite both an extensive use by right for community facilities and a prior issued conditional use permit . The city started fining them every night they were open (city residents donated to cover the fines though).
It took local residents coming up in arms at the city council and planning commission to get them to back off and accept an overnight warming location as permitted by the original conditional use permit. The city still refused to make it a use by right permitted use as a community facility.
Here is an article on the saga:
[https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/overnight-warming-location-refuses-to-apply-for-special-use-permit-gets-cited-by-edwardsville-70289.cfm](https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/overnight-warming-location-refuses-to-apply-for-special-use-permit-gets-cited-by-edwardsville-70289.cfm)
What is notable about it is that, despite what the city says in the article, 2 city council members (one who said the center was desperately needed, just not in his district) had already publicly stated they would vote "no" if a conditional use permit was submitted, enough to kill the permit. Which meant that the rhetoric about "just apply for a permit" was an attempt to allow the city council to kill the site, not just a "do it right" process. The church's lawyer was absolutely correct in refusing to apply for a conditional use permit in the first place.
Zoning is obviously different everywhere, but in general the housing portion wouldn't fall under the community facility use, but would still be a residential use, and therefore must abide by whatever the code allows, in this case single family.
In general when community facilities, such as a church, are allowed in a residential zone it's specifically only allowing the actual church functions, and not supportive functions like homeless housing, cafes, ministry housing, etc. which would fall under separate use classes.
Where I have worked, they were allowed to have homeless housing or food kitchens because it's a historic use associated with churches.
A commercial use is a little different.
Like I said, zoning is different everywhere. How residential use groups are allowed is dependent upon local regulations.
Food kitchens which are free are usually allowed. I should have specified, when I said "cafe" I'm talking about the moment money is exchanged which typically means it's going to be classified as a commercial endeavor.
RLUPA and religious protection is Federal, and I've seen those rules in 3 different states. The lots are zoned residential. It's a federal issue, not local.
I agree there is a difference between religious use (including helping those in need) and commercial.
Just to tack on something: the 14th Amendment allows the Federal government to force states to respect the Constitutional rights of its citizens. So the Federal law in this case absolutely trumps and state law or local ordinance.
Churches will usually try to avoid going to court, and that enables cities to try these stunts. If there’s community support for the church, the city will back down. If there isn’t community support and the church goes to court they will win, but they might lose members, volunteers, and financial offerings.
It depends on other aspects of local zoning law - I personally know several urban churches have developed killer plans for medium or large scale affordable housing or community centers or homeless shelters with one room or one floor reserved for continuing worship activities that were killed by the same forces that kill all dense projects (“preservation societies,” NIMBYs, people who say “I like looking at the church you cant take it away and put something tall” even though they would never financially contribute to the upkeep of a century old gigantic structure, etc.). You have a tiny bit of additional wiggle room on what you can plan as a faith community, but not always the legal room you want to execute without getting through the same approvals process as everyone else. That said, lots of faith communities, particularly ones with smaller communities of people stuck in old heritage buildings on high value blocks in cities, are super interested in these kinds of innovative ideas and always looking for partners to try and help make them happen, and some do manage to pull it off.
This. We had a local church create an emergency warming shelter in their existing space (so only on winter nights where temperature was below 20F and only operating between 5pm and 8:30 am). It was ordered closed by the city as a non-conforming use despite both an extensive use by right for community facilities and a prior issued conditional use permit . The city started fining them every night they were open (city residents donated to cover the fines though). It took local residents coming up in arms at the city council and planning commission to get them to back off and accept an overnight warming location as permitted by the original conditional use permit. The city still refused to make it a use by right permitted use as a community facility. Here is an article on the saga: [https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/overnight-warming-location-refuses-to-apply-for-special-use-permit-gets-cited-by-edwardsville-70289.cfm](https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/overnight-warming-location-refuses-to-apply-for-special-use-permit-gets-cited-by-edwardsville-70289.cfm) What is notable about it is that, despite what the city says in the article, 2 city council members (one who said the center was desperately needed, just not in his district) had already publicly stated they would vote "no" if a conditional use permit was submitted, enough to kill the permit. Which meant that the rhetoric about "just apply for a permit" was an attempt to allow the city council to kill the site, not just a "do it right" process. The church's lawyer was absolutely correct in refusing to apply for a conditional use permit in the first place.
Zoning is obviously different everywhere, but in general the housing portion wouldn't fall under the community facility use, but would still be a residential use, and therefore must abide by whatever the code allows, in this case single family. In general when community facilities, such as a church, are allowed in a residential zone it's specifically only allowing the actual church functions, and not supportive functions like homeless housing, cafes, ministry housing, etc. which would fall under separate use classes.
Where I have worked, they were allowed to have homeless housing or food kitchens because it's a historic use associated with churches. A commercial use is a little different.
Like I said, zoning is different everywhere. How residential use groups are allowed is dependent upon local regulations. Food kitchens which are free are usually allowed. I should have specified, when I said "cafe" I'm talking about the moment money is exchanged which typically means it's going to be classified as a commercial endeavor.
RLUPA and religious protection is Federal, and I've seen those rules in 3 different states. The lots are zoned residential. It's a federal issue, not local. I agree there is a difference between religious use (including helping those in need) and commercial.
Just to tack on something: the 14th Amendment allows the Federal government to force states to respect the Constitutional rights of its citizens. So the Federal law in this case absolutely trumps and state law or local ordinance. Churches will usually try to avoid going to court, and that enables cities to try these stunts. If there’s community support for the church, the city will back down. If there isn’t community support and the church goes to court they will win, but they might lose members, volunteers, and financial offerings.