[Vision2020] Fw: Churches Putting Town Out of Business [Resend]

[Donovan Arnold]

There aren't too many churches, there are just to few businesses. 
  
  Best,
  
  _DJA

Art Deco <deco at moscow.com> wrote:              The below is being resent due to yesterday's problems.    Thanks to First Step for fixing the problems quickly.
   
  W.
  ----- Original Message -----   From: Art Deco 
  To: Vision 2020 
  Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 6:55 AM
  Subject: Churches Putting Town Out of Business

  

  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-churches31jul31,0,6286040.story?track=tothtml
  From the Los Angeles Times
  Churches Putting Town Out of Business  Stafford,  Texas, has 51 tax-exempt religious institutions and wants no more:  `Somebody's got to pay for police, fire and schools.'
By Lianne Hart
Times Staff   Writer

July 31, 2006

STAFFORD,  Texas — They are not the words one expects to hear from a politician or  a Southerner, and Leonard Scarcella is both: "Our city has an excessive  number of churches."

Scarcella is mayor of this Houston-area  community, which has 51 churches and other religious institutions  packed into its 7 square miles.

With some 300 undeveloped,  potentially revenue-producing acres left in Stafford, officials are  scrambling to find a legal way to keep more tax-exempt churches from  building here. 

"With federal laws, you can't just say, 'We're  not going to have any more churches,' " Scarcella said. "We respect the  Constitution, but 51 of anything is too much." 

Stafford,  population 19,227, is the largest city in Texas without a property tax,  and it depends on sales taxes and business fees for revenue. Nonprofits  have been attracted by its rapid growth and minimal deed restrictions.  "It's thrown everything out of balance, plus providing zero revenue.  Somebody's got to pay for police, fire and schools," City Councilman  Cecil Willis said. 

In 2003, around the time the 45th church  settled in, city leaders began looking for a way to slow the pace of  construction. Public meetings were held; "we had people of different  religions attending, people in their religious garb, Buddhists in their  orange gowns and whatever else, talking about this very openly,"  Scarcella said. 

An ordinance eventually passed that required  those who wanted to build a church — and other public gathering places,  such as bowling alleys and community halls — to undergo a rigorous  review process and obtain City Council approval.

Before the  ordinance, "you could pretty much come in here and say, 'I want to open  up a church,' and I'd say, 'OK,' " said Gene Bane, the city's director  of building permits.

In his office is a large map of Stafford  that is dotted with round yellow stickers, each dot denoting a church  or religious facility. In some parts of town, the dots are so close  together they nearly meld into a big yellow glob.

In one  quarter-mile section near the city center, parishioners can choose  among 17 churches. There are three small churches in the Quail Ridge  Plaza shopping center, and three large brick churches on the street  behind it. Down the road, the Evangelical Formosan Church is tucked  behind a muffler shop.

"If you   can't find religion in Stafford, Texas, you ain't looking hard enough," Bane   said.

There  are no synagogues in Stafford, but there are religious facilities for  Buddhists, Muslims, Chinese Baptists, Filipino Baptists,  Spanish-speaking Baptists, and "every other variety of Christian you  can imagine," Scarcella said. 

"As best as we've been able to  determine, the overwhelming majority of people who attend here don't  even live in Stafford; they're coming from everywhere else," Willis  said. Elsewhere includes Houston, about 15 miles northeast, and nearby  Sugar Land.

"I don't hate God. I'm not against America and apple  pie," Willis said. "We just have to protect what's left for commercial  development." 

Lawyers researching ways to stop   church growth here will report back to city leaders in about six weeks,   Scarcella said. 

Lola  Onita, assistant pastor at Jesus House Texas, said churches should be  allowed to spread unfettered in a country that respects religious  freedom. "People need a place to worship and hear the word of God," she  said.

But Nilda Martinez, who owns a flower shop between two  churches, has had enough. "The churches, they're everywhere here," she  said. "There are too many; the city should control it. It hurts the  city when you don't have enough businesses paying taxes."

Willis  said he asked the last six applicants why they wanted to build a church  in Stafford. "Every one of them said they prayed about it, and God said  to come here," he said. "I can't compete with that, so here we are."
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