DENVER—A federal judge will decide whether a Boulder County church will be able to build an extension rejected by county commissioners.
Rocky Mountain Christian Church sued the county alleging religious discrimination after the $30 million project near Niwot was rejected. On Wednesday, the jury in the case rejected the discrimination claims but left a final decision on whether to allow the expansion up to U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn.
Jurors also rejected the church’s claim for $7.6 million in damages.
The church’s lawyer, Darrell Waas, said the jury found that the county’s land-use laws didn’t treat religious institutions the same as other groups and that the county’s actions created a substantial burden on the church.
“We’re very appreciative of that finding,” Waas said.
Lead pastor Alan Ahlgrim said he was very pleased with the jury’s decision.
“We feel vindicated,” he said.
Boulder County spokeswoman Barbara Halpin maintained that Blackburn will have the final word on whether the church was treated unfairly in violation of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. She said Blackburn also will rule on who should pay for legal fees in the case.
Waas said the jury’s job was to make factual decisions and the legal decisions will be made by the judge. However, he said he expected Blackburn to uphold the jury’s findings.
It wasn’t known how soon Blackburn would rule.
The Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty praised the jury’s decision.
“What this decision says, loud and clear, is that religious institutions need to be treated the same as nonreligious institutions—no better but also no worse,” the group’s national litigation director, Eric Rassbach, said in a written statement.
The county rejected the church’s proposal to build an expansion on 54 acres of private land in Niwot, about five miles northeast of Boulder. Commissioners said the expansion would move into an agricultural buffer zone designed to separate urban and rural areas.
The church said its plans were treated differently than the proposed expansion of the private Alexander Dawson School near Lafayette. The school’s permit was approved.
