The Prince George’s County Council will ask for religious discrimination lawsuit against it to be dismissed after changing some regulations on a small portion of land owned by a Seventh Day Adventist Church. The council partially granted a request by Reaching Hearts International to change water and sewage regulations on 17 acres the church owns in West Laurel.
Church officials won a $3.7 million religious discrimination lawsuit against the county in 2008 after the council repeatedly stymied their efforts to build a sanctuary in West Laurel. And U.S. District Court Judge Roger Titus ordered the county to process any future requests by the church to change its water and sewage category.
Councilwoman Mary Lehman said she believes the new decision is in line with the judge’s order.
“We used the judge’s words exactly and took our actions from his order,” Lehman said.
But the few acres now available for construction aren’t sufficient for the church’s plans and the council’s decision continues to violate his congregation’s religious freedoms, Pastor Michael Oxentenko said.
“They know that in passing this limited water and sewer category, they are limiting the scope and size of our church to where it’s inadequate for us to realize our religious mission,” he said.
The church wants to build a 900-seat sanctuary and a 12,000-square-foot gymnasium on the plot of land off Brooklyn Bridge Road, which the congregation bought for $800,000 in 2001. Church officials also plan to operate a K-8 grade school for about 200 students.
Lehman has argued that the large-scale development planned by the church may threaten the quality water at the nearby Rocky Gorge Reservoir, harming drinking water in a predominantly rural and residential area.
The council rejected Reaching Hearts’ request in June, the third time since 2003 the church had asked for a change to water and sewage regulations on 13.7 acres of the property.
Church officials filed another religious discrimination case against the county a month later, a lawsuit nearly identical to the one they won in 2008.
Attorneys for Reaching Hearts also filed a motion for contempt, arguing the council’s denial violated Titus’ order.
The church, which rents space at the Cedar Ridge Conference Center in Spencerville, is unable to fulfill its mission without a new facility, Oxentenko said.
“This effectively shuts us down,” Oxentenko said. “It’s not anything that in our view honors the spirit of this.”
