BY ADAM ATKINSON

NORTH COUNTRY THIS WEEK

CANTON – Attorneys for the Christian Fellowship Center have claimed that they are close to a settlement with the village of Canton over the church’s use of a commercially zoned building for services.

The Canton congregation has been holding religious services at the building formerly known as The Club restaurant at 25 Court St. since late March after U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn in Albany granted a preliminary injunction. The order sidesteps village zoning laws which have, until recently, denied the church use of the commercially zoned property for religious services.

H0wever, a filing by the village’s attorney Johnson and Laws LLC of Clifton Park, on Monday, April 15 in U.S. District Court responds to the church’s original complaint paragraph by paragraph, denying almost all of the allegations, statements and inferences made by the CFC to the court citing discrimination over denial of the building’s use.

Mauck & Baker LLC, the church’s law firm, quickly filed a request shortly after asking the judge for a permanent injunction which would allow the church hold services at their property indefinitely.

Village Mayor Michael Dalton declined to comment on Mauck & Baker’s claim of possible settlement over the issue. The attorney defending the village, Gregg T. Johnson, also did not comment.

John Mauck, attorney for the church, said a settlement could come by May.

“We are in settlement discussions with representatives of the Village of Canton and are close to reaching a settlement,” said John Mauck, attorney for the church. “We hope it will come about at the May 20 city council meeting.”

Kahn writes in his decision in March granting the preliminary injunction that the church’s case is valid under the Equal Terms provision of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA).

“Because the Church is likely to succeed on the merits of its RLUIPA Equal Terms challenge to the Ordinance and will be irreparably harmed if the Ordinance remains in force against it, and because the balance of hardships and the public interest resolve in the Church’s favor, it is entitled to a preliminary injunction,” wrote Kahn.

The CFC was initially denied a use permit by the village code enforcement officer to house its Canton congregation at the property last year, prior to purchasing it. The Canton CFC group was renting space at the Best Western to hold its services for around $477 per Sunday and had been searching for property to set up a more permanent location for months.

The CFC bought 25 Court St. in January for $310,000 (as well as paying over $18,000 in unpaid taxes on the lot, according to court documents). The purchase was after the CFC asked the village Zoning Board of Appeals to reinterpret the village code enforcement officer’s denial of a use permit to hold services there.

The church cited RLUIPA in its request for reinterpretation. The law was established to prevent discrimination against religious organizations in zoning matters. The ZBA, however, upheld the original denial, ruling that the church was not being treated unequally in the matter under the stipulations of RLUIPA.

The church then filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court alleging the village violated RLUIPA because other assemblies are permitted in the commercial district, including theaters, fraternal organizations and social clubs.