Posted on: Thursday, March 20, 2003

Maui church, county urged to end dispute

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

Federal Judge Samuel King yesterday urged Maui County officials and lawyers for Hale O Kaula Church to find a way to resolve their differences over plans to add a second story to a building on agricultural land in Kula.

The Maui Planning Commission has twice rejected the church's application for a special use permit which would allow the addition to be built on the 6-acre site.

The commission first maintained that an expanded building would violate the county fire code; in the second instance it said it was denying the permit to protect Maui agricultural land.

The church sued the Planning Commission in federal court, claiming it is the victim of religious discrimination.

King yesterday rejected a request by church lawyers to be given more time to respond to arguments by the county on why the lawsuit should be thrown out. King said he wants more time to study the county's request to throw out the 18 claims of wrongdoing the church listed in the lawsuit.

King told church attorney Roman Storzer that many of the allegations in the lawsuit are repetitive. He said a single claim — that the county violated the federal The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 — would have been sufficient.

The federal law prohibits discrimination against churches in zoning and land-use cases and bars local governments from imposing a "substantial burden" on the free exercise of religion.

"Why don't you just ask for a zone change," King asked Storzer.

Storzer said churches are permitted on agricultural land in Hawai'i — so long as they have a special use permit — and that the reasons cited by the commission for denying a permit needed by the church to proceed with construction of the second story were groundless.

Attempts to get the zoning designation on the property changed would likely be futile and would conflict with church plans to use the bulk of the property to raise crops, Storzer said.

"Do you really want to make this a case that goes all the way to the Supreme Court?" King asked Storzer, who is director of litigation for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based public interest law firm that helps churches with religious freedom cases.

King also told Maui County Deputy Corporation Counsel Madelyn D'Enbeau that she might suggest to the Maui Planning Commission that it reopen the issue.

D'Enbeau said the county has had settlement discussions with the church but could not reveal the details of those discussions.

A jury trial on the matter is scheduled to begin in July.