The Summit Church sues Chatham County regarding religious discrimination

By Sarah Atkins
Correspondent

CHAPEL HILL, CHATHAM COUNTY—The Summit Church filed a federal lawsuit on Feb. 14, claiming that the Chatham County Board of Commissioners violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). The lawsuit challenges the board’s decision to deny Summit’s rezoning request for a new church campus.

What is The Summit Church?

Established in Durham in 1961 as Grace Baptist Mission and relaunched as The Summit Church in 2001, Summit Church has deep roots in the Triangle region of North Carolina. Since its establishment, Summit Church has experienced significant growth and now has 13 campuses meeting in 12 locations across the Triangle.

In the lawsuit filed against the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, Summit Church claims that its multi-site strategy is “a key part of its religious practice.” With a goal of ensuring every person living in the Triangle is “no more than 15 minutes from a thriving evangelical church campus,” Summit Church seeks to encourage its members to “Stay where you are. Serve where you live. Be the church in your local community.”

Why is Summit Church seeking to build in Chatham County?

Summit Church launched a campus in Chapel Hill in 2013, which now meets weekly at East Chapel Hill High School. Summit’s Chapel Hill Campus has continued to grow, with approximately 800 people attending weekly services. Summit approximates that 15% of those attending the Chapel Hill Campus commute from Chatham County.

To accommodate its growth and allow the Chapel Hill Campus to “more effectively serve the surrounding community,” the Summit Church began seeking a location to build a new facility.

Summit Church acquired an option to purchase six parcels of land in Chatham County in 2023. The church then designed the new campus and began the process of securing appropriate zoning for the property.

Plan Chatham and relevant zoning decisions in Chatham County

In late 2017, the Chatham County Commission adopted Plan Chatham, the county’s comprehensive land use plan. Plan Chatham outlines the culture and character Chatham County seeks to develop as it pertains to land use.

The Future Use Map within Plan Chatham provides “a framework for future land use” in the county. It also contains outlines for various community centers, such as Town Centers, Employment Centers, and Community Centers.

According to the context provided in Summit’s lawsuit, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners has granted all but one privately initiated rezoning request since the adoption of Plan Chatham and the Future Use Map. The one request that was denied was stated to be inconsistent with the Future Use Map.

Prior to The Summit Church’s interest in the six parcels of land in Chatham County, plans were in place to develop them into an active-adult community called Herndon Farms.

Chatham County approved Herndon Farms in 2022, rezoning the land from a residential zone to a Conditional District-Compact Community. The residential development was accordingly designed to be a community-focused space that would complement any surrounding commercial uses, a purpose that Plan Chatham outlines is also served by churches.

However, development plans were not submitted by the established deadline and the approval for Herndon Farms expired.

The road to the courtroom

Before entering the agreement with the landowner, Qunity, P.A., Summit’s planning and decision representative, met with review staff representing each stage of the county’s rezoning process in a pre-submittal meeting around Oct. 2023. According to Summit’s lawsuit, review staff present at the meeting expressed that the church’s project was consistent with Plan Chatham and the Future Use Map.

In April of 2024, Summit Church met with the Chatham County Appearance Commission and held a Community Meeting, as required by ordinance. According to the conditional rezoning application submitted by Qunity, Community meeting attendees were “excited to see a project proposed that will benefit the community and limit environmental impacts.”

Summit applied to have three of the parcels, just over 50 acres, of land rezoned to Conditional District-Office and Institutional. The church submitted a separate application to have the remaining three parcels of land restored to their pre-2022 zoning, as they do not plan to use them at this time.

The site plans for the property Summit intended to build on were designed to maintain the area’s rural character and provide a generous viewshed buffer of 500 feet (five times the distance of the buffer for the approved Herndon Farms development). The plans also preserved 18 acres of forested land and designed stormwater ponds and an underwater septic system to preserve the look and feel of the surrounding areas.

A public hearing for Summit’s applications was scheduled for August 2024 by the Chatham County Planning Committee. At that hearing, the zoning administrator noted the Appearance Committee’s opinion that Summit Church “took special care” to preserve the rural appearance.

However, then-Vice Chair Karen Howard of the Board of Commissioners expressed that she believed the proposed Summit campus was “a poor fit” for Chatham County’s rural character. Concerns were also raised regarding the loss of tax revenue that would result from a church owning that land.

A Planning Board hearing of Summit’s applications took place in September 2024. The zoning administrator presented a proposed consistency statement reading that the request was “consistent with the comprehensive plan by being located within a compact community node where churches are specifically mentioned as part of the fabric of development.”

While some members of the Planning Board, such as Tony Mayor, expressed approval for Summit’s plans, others raised concerns about the urbanized environment the church would bring to the area and the loss of tax revenue.

Following the September hearing, Qunity and Summit Church drafted a letter of address some of the objections raised at the hearing. This letter highlighted Summit’s smaller tax-exempt footprint than Herndon Farms, its potential to address the county’s issue of retail leakage, compliance with Plan Chatham’s rural preservation goals, and included a refined Traffic Impact Analysis.

Another hearing was held in October, continuing the discussion of why the proposed Summit Church campus would not be a fit for Chatham County’s goals. The Planning Board ultimately recommended denying Summit Church’s application.

Summit’s applications were then scheduled to be heard by the Board of Commissioners. Summit’s lawsuit regards this December hearing as largely dismissive of the burdens facing their Chapel Hill Campus and of the church’s to serve the community. They note that Chair Karen Howard declared, “Chatham County is not a place to call home for that size of a church.”

The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to deny Summit Church’s rezoning applications. A non-consistency statement was issued declaring that “the rezoning is not consistent by providing a diversity in the tax revenue and does not provide more high-quality jobs for the area.”

Summit’s lawsuit

Following the many hearings and eventual denial of their rezoning request, Summit Church filed a lawsuit against the Chatham County Board of Commissioners. The lawsuit claims that the Board violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

1. Substantial burden on Summit Church’s religious exercise
2. Less than equal terms
3. Discrimination on the basis of religion
4. Unreasonable limitation

Summit later released a public statement declaring, “We believe we have a responsibility to defend our constitutional rights and the rights of all churches, regardless of beliefs, size, or methodology.”

Current developments

The Chatham County Board of Commissioners was expected to respond to Summit’s lawsuit by March 7, but filed a motion for more time. The motion was granted, and the Chatham County Board of Commissioners is now expected to answer by Thursday, March 27.  The court also ordered that Chatham County meet with Summit’s legal counsel before filing any motion for dismissal.

Sarah Atkins is a student at UNC and the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, studying journalism and history. She has worked as an intern and freelance journalist with the Mitchell News Journal and is excited to contribute to TLR. She enjoys photography and is always eager to find the deeper human interest in her work. She can be reached at information@thelocalreporter.press.