Turning a health club into a church

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Enraptured

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If somebody were to buy a no-longer-operational health club and turn it into a church (he'd be using the same building, not tearing it down), and the people living nearby objected, what recourse would they have? Would they be able to take any sort of legal action? How could the church stop them from doing so?
 

JoNightshade

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I'm a little puzzled why anyone nearby would even have an objection. If it's a health club, it's already commercially zoned and should have parking. The only reason I can think of that people would object is because they would need MORE parking, but they should be required to put enough parking in to hold the congregation anyway.

So as far as I know, there's really nothing you can do. A church has as much right to be there as any other business, right?
 

Siddow

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http://www.acluga.org/docket.html

Scroll down to bottom of that page, and there's a bit about a church that bought a daycare facility (iirc), to turn it into a church. Objections came, request denied because although commercial zoning allowed for churches in commercial areas, it did not allow them to occupy a building which was previously used for commercial purposes.

You could google for the area where your story takes place, look for zoning laws about churches. I googled "Georgia zoning laws for churches" to find that page. (Don't use quotes, though). You might turn up something interesting, like a case that's gone to court. :)

In your case, and with what I learned from that page I linked to, I would think the church would have to demolish the building, or at least substantially alter the building. But that all depends on zoning in the area of your story.
 

Siddow

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Ahhh...not the bottom of the page, sorry! Just to here:

Tabernacle Baptist Church v. East Point
 

job

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Why would the people living nearby object?

Anyhow. The zoning bit for churches ....

These things are decided by local government bureaucrats.

Now ... all else being equal, local governments love to have churches move in. Churches maintain the property. They use few services. They promote the general welfare. They lend respectability to rough neighborhoods. They do not go bankrupt and leave buildings sitting vacant for years.
Church people are most often pleasant folk and easy to work with and the local government people do not get annoyed at them.
And when local governments are mean to churches all the religious people band together and vote the rascals out.

Local governments generally bend over backwards to make variances and exceptions to the benefit of churches.

So you may want to have a good logical reason why the local government is 'agin'.


Loss of city income when the property goes non-profit could be a factor, but it's usually not a huge factor. If somebody else wanted the property ... if the church is many black faces in a white neighborhood ... if they plan to sponsor a halfway house for drug addicts ... if they, like, worship Satan ...

OK. Once the local government is 'against the church, they will find some way to prevent it operating in any particular building.
Parking is a good excuse. Handicapped bathrooms is a good excuse. Sprinklers, fire exits, handicapped parking, ramps in compliance with Federal law, asbestos, sanitary disposal of garbage ... the list is endless.

There is always something.
 
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benbradley

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I recall a "Sports Authority" sporting equipment retailer that went out of business, and the (already decent-sized) church congregation a mile away bought the building, redid the outside of the building with a steeple and in general made it church-like. I don't know if there were any objections to it, but I wasn't "in touch" with the neighborhood.

But when I first saw it I thought it was really funny, because all I could think of was "That church building used to be a Sports Authority!"

If you really want believable objections to a church in the USA, make it non-Christian, especially something such as Wiccan. There are those who vocally object to the existence of such churches no matter where they are.


...
Objections came, request denied because although commercial zoning allowed for churches in commercial areas, it did not allow them to occupy a building which was previously used for commercial purposes.
That sounds odd, I've seen churches in older low-rent strip malls (the same sort of places you see thrift stores) and one in an industrial park.
From the article:
The city of East Point has since repealed the ordinance and churches are now allowed to occupy buildings that were previously used for commercial purposes.
So it was just East Point (small suburban city near Atlanta), and now they've dropped it.

Now seeing that East Point (this is THE BIBLE BELT, folks!) denied a permit to a Baptist Church, just imagine a Wiccan church with the same request...oh my...
 

frimble3

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There've been problems with some local churches running soup kitchens, etc. The neighbour complained about the homeless/unemployed loitering in their neighbourhoods. Or a loud daycare. Or loud services? But yeah, you can endlessly nit-pick most renovations on by-law complaints.
 

Sandi LeFaucheur

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I think there could be an objection if the building was seen to be taking employment from the area. Let's say under commercial usage the place employed 12 people. As a church, it wouldn't employ anyone. In an area with high employment, that could be seen as a problem. (In the bedroom community where I live, there are areas zoned "employment lands" where you can build a factory but not necessarily something that will not employ people.)
 

JoniBGoode

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If you really want believable objections to a church in the USA, make it non-Christian, especially something such as Wiccan. There are those who vocally object to the existence of such churches no matter where they are.]

Or make it a Islamic mosque. One of the southwest suburbs of Chicago has been fighting a mosque in court for more than a decade. The town has plenty of churches, and the city fathers insist that they are not trying to keep Muslims out, they are just concerned about parking and the impact on the neighborhood. But, a number of the churchs with larger congregations have less parking.
 

Cath

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Or perhaps it is a church and the locals are not Christians? Or it's a different denomination church?

I don't know enough about zoning laws to answer the question, but could think of plenty of reasons why people might object. Extra traffic/lack of parking would be the most persuasive, I suspect.
 

Sandi LeFaucheur

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Basically, the answer to the original question is: They would go to the municipality's planning office. They could try taking up a petition to sway the councillors to change any zoning regulation, if needed. Could the church stop them from going to the planning office/taking up a petition? Shouldn't think so. But at any public meeting, both sides would be able to state their position.

Try researching the planning regulations of your muncipality. This might give you an answer.
 
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