RLUIPA.org
Federal lawsuit filed against Maui officials in church case
Hale O Kaula, a small nondenominational church on the Hawaiian island of Maui, today filed suit in U.S. District Court in Honolulu against Maui County, the State of Hawaii, and county officials responsible for denying the church a permit to build a house of worship on a piece of agricultural property it owns on the island. The church is represented by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and local attorney Charles Hurd.
On June 27, 2001, the Maui Planning Commission voted to deny the church's request for a permit to use the property for religious worship in addition to the current agricultural, recreational and residential uses. In voting to deny the application, Commission members publicly acknowledged that they were deliberately choosing to ignore a new federal law called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ("RLUIPA"), which prohibits discrimination against churches in zoning and land use cases, and bars local officials from imposing a "substantial burden" on the free exercise of religion without a "compelling government interest." The lawsuit filed today charges the defendants with violating multiple provisions of RLUIPA, as well as depriving the church of rights guaranteed to it under the U.S. and Hawaiian constitutions.
Hale O Kaula purchased the property on Anuhea Place in Pukalani in 1990, and has been attempting to win county approval of using the land for worship services since the mid-1990s. In the meantime, church members have erected an agricultural building, a small residence and a generator building, and the church engages in a variety of agricultural and recreational activities that are permitted on property zoned as agricultural land on Maui. All of these activities are a part of the church's unique "Joseph Ministry," which requires the church to "provide sustenance from a life enriched environment that preserves God's people alive and healthy." The activities include food production, storage and distribution; ecosystem management; soil restoration; gardening, greenhouse, orchard and permaculture management.
The church, which was founded in 1960, cannot pursue the Joseph Ministry activities at its present location, a tiny facility on a plot less than a half acre in size in Haiku. Moreover, Maui zoning law discriminates against a church such as Hale O Kaula, which has an agricultural ministry, because it excludes churches from agricultural land, and excludes agricultural activity on land zoned for churches.