AFN previously reported about the city of Santa Ana refusing to allow a first-generation Chinese and Taiwanese-American church to open its doors, despite the church having already bought the building.
The church is called Anchor Stone.
The building has been sitting there vacant now for a couple of years.
First Liberty Institute and the law firm O'Melvany & Myers LLP have now filed a federal lawsuit against the city. They are seeking a preliminary injunction.
AFN talked with Ryan Gardner, counsel for the First Liberty Institute.
"So, this case is about a small but vibrant Christian Church in Southern California. As many small churches do, they originally were meeting in their members' homes and then renting out venues. But as they continued to grow, they eventually decided that they wanted to find a place of their own to set down more permanent roots for their congregation,” said Ryan Gardner, counsel for the First Liberty Institute.
He explained that Anchor Stone began looking around the Southern California area, and they came across this piece of property in Santa Ana. They began the process of buying the property.
"Before closing, the church actually went to the city and told them their plans for this property, told them what they wanted to do with it, sent them plans, and there really were no red flags raised by the city officials during any of that other than telling them that they would need to get a conditional use permit. But that didn't seem like it would be an obstacle at all."
Gardner explained that around the same time that Anchor Stone was going through all this, there was another church right across the street going through the same thing, and they got a conditional use permit shortly after Anchor Stone met with the city officials.
"So, relying on its own positive interactions with city officials, Anchor Stone closed on the property. They spent about $1.6 million to do this, and that was back in August of 2022. But then, after they started going through the process of applying for this conditional use permit, the city did a complete 180."
Out of nowhere, the city said they were never going to approve this conditional use permit, according to Gardner.
"Because it was contrary to this vague general plan that the city officials had never mentioned before, had never come up in any discussions, but all of a sudden, they completely changed their tune about this whole thing."
To appeal the denial, the church cited the Religious Land and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), which established that no government can “impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person, including a religious assembly or institution … No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that treats a religious assembly or institution on less than equal terms with a nonreligious assembly or institution,” according to Decision Magazine.
Nice building but no services
Gardner said one of the great ironies in all of this is that this building sat vacant for years.
"What the city of Santa Ana is saying is we would rather see this space vacant than for it to be used as a church, which is truly stunning."
First Liberty says denying this church is a flagrant denial of the free exercise of religious activities.
