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‘Megachurches’ on agenda, debate flares

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Rachael Golden⁄The Gazette Francine Mfuta of Gaithersburg at a rally of the Organizing Committee of Montgomery County Houses of Worship.

Last week, members of the Organizing Committee of Montgomery County Houses of Worship – a coalition of more than 20 churches – gathered for a rally on the steps of the Montgomery County Council Office Building in Rockville. Speakers, placards and chants of ‘‘County Council let us in” gave voice to the frustration felt by the so-called ‘‘megachurches” – religious groups wanting to build large facilities on rural land – that have become the face of the debate over what accommodations should be made for such Private Institutional Facilities (PIFs).

The facilities at issue also include other tax-exempt organizations like private schools and senior housing complexes that have been granted special consideration in years past. For example, policy allowed the council to grant permission on a case-by-case basis for public water and sewer systems to be extended to land that without a PIF would not receive the service.

‘‘We think the existing PIF policy represents the way it should be; it represents a compromise,” said attorney Mark Viani, coordinator of the church committee. ‘‘No one is getting a free ride.”

Viani said the church group, which includes various faiths, came together after being surprised in June by the strong reaction of area conservation and civic groups to the recommendations of the county’s PIF working group, whose recommendations included changes in zoning and water and sewer policies that would limit but accommodate such development.

On Friday both sides of the debate met in a crowded hearing before the council’s transportation and environment committee. More than 30 people spoke. Conservationists and the often-silent farming community decried the possible impacts of the campus-like developments proposed by some churches.

‘‘I’m not opposed to those megachurches or what have you but there’s plenty of places [downcounty] ... and they already have sewer and water,” said George Lechlider of the Montgomery County Farm Bureau. ‘‘What I’m afraid of is they’re taking that water from our people and our animals.”

Jane Evans, president of Citizens to Preserve the Reserve, held up an ear of corn during her testimony. Her group opposes plans by Derwood Bible Church of Silver Spring to develop a 225-acre plot in Laytonsville.

‘‘Act now or this will be the last corn ever harvested there,” she said. ‘‘This is the moment that defines the future of agriculture in Montgomery County.”

Such rhetoric is encouraging more and more residents to feel they must choose sides, several participants observed, but compromises will likely be required.

‘‘We have a tendency in life to assign black hats and white hats,” County Council President Thomas E. Perez (D-Dist. 5) of Takoma Park said in opening Thursday’s hearing. ‘‘This is an example in my judgment of an issue that pits white hats and white hats.”

Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown said he hopes to see incentives and other creative solutions that would allow churches to locate on less-controversial land.

‘‘I would argue we can accomplish both objectives – we can protect the ag reserve and we can allow our churches to grow,” Knapp said in an interview. ‘‘But you’ve got to sit down and remove some of the emotion from the discussion.”

However, several church representatives said their congregations have waited long enough.

Pastor Donell Peterman of the Joshua Group Ministries, testifying for the church group, said pastors are ‘‘trying not to lie” as they tell members of one delay after another while also remaining encouraging.

‘‘After almost two years, the members of the congregations are getting weary,” he said. ‘‘There is no battle between pastors and farmers. We’re at the point we need counsel to let us know should we go forward or should we tell them we need to go in another direction.”

Barbara Sears, an attorney representing Bethel World Outreach Church, said the application requesting a new sewer classification for the 120-acre Brink Road property where the church hopes to build was initially filed in 2001.

‘‘There is no end date in sight,” Sears said. ‘‘They are impeded in their actions every day and their actions are to serve people.”

County officials have repeatedly deferred such applications as they struggle to come up with a comprehensive response to the issue. The recommendations of the PIF working group included zoning adjustments as well as changes to water and sewer policy and other legislative changes.