The Government Regulations and

Church Property Part II

 

In the previous article, we have covered Property Tax Exemption, Renting to Others, Water/Sewer Tax Exemption and Building Inspection Fees. We will continue to our efforts in this second and final portion of the article inattempt to introduce and cover the basic government regulations and church property. If you have a specific question or need help, please contact the Council of Churches of the City of New York by email at email@cccny.net or by phone at 212-870-1020. We have customized consulting services available. Let us resume our task of covering the regulations.

Zoning and Building Code

...Your property must meet zoning and building code requirements. Religious organizations, under court precedents in New York, cannot be zoned out of residential areas; they can be, and are, precluded from zones designated for heavy manufacturing because of the potential danger posed to pedestrians by the heavy truck traffic. The building itself must have a proper Certificate of Occupancy for its church use. Wood frame homes cannot lawfully be converted today for church use without very expensive alterations for fire protection which, generally, makes this cost prohibitive.
...On the other hand, buildings built before the 1938 NYC Building Code was adopted were not required to have Certificates of Occupancy and, assuming no building alterations since then, are occupied today lawfully without a Certificate as long as the use (church use, for example) remains unchanged. Similarly, the 1968 NYC Building Code (the current Code) provided for the first time that each meeting room within church buildings must have a Place of Assembly Permit if they can accommodate 75 or more persons. This (1968) requirement for PA Permits also triggers a requirement that emergency lighting must be installed in each of those rooms. The Fire Department has been known wrongfully to issue Code Violations for older church buildings lacking either a Place of Assembly Permit or emergency lighting. If your building was used as a church in 1968 and has not been altered since, you should object and defend yourself against such a Violation. Contact the Council of Churches for more information if you have previously been cited for receive such a Violation in the future.

Landmarking Regulations

...In 1965, New York City created the Landmarks Preservation Commission with authority to designate individual buildings (and later, in 1971, whole districts) as “landmarks.” The aura of “landmarking” exudes thoughts of “honor” and “historic” and some private organizations are making claims that substantial funds are available to owners of landmarked buildings for renovation and restoration purposes. Both the aura and the funding claims are a false facade masking an intrusive and restrictive set of regulations. A study in the early 1980s revealed that church buildings were selected for landmark regulation on average 42 times more often that all other buildings in the City and that designation was frequently used as an illegal means of “spot zoning” to stop a proposed redevelopment of the property.
...Landmark designation – far from being a benign “honor” – requires that any alteration of the building be subject to the whim of the Landmark Preservation Commission which, usually, means a public hearing where others demand the Commission require the church spend its mission dollars in ways that do not further its mission. While the Commission has the authority to designate buildings over the objections of the owner – and has often done so – it is worth registering your objection from the beginning.
...Because of many abuses of local landmarking and zoning ordinances around the nation, Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 which requires that local government agencies demonstrate that the particular application of the zoning or landmarking ordinance is to achieve a “compelling state interest” for which no “less restrictive” means exists. In general, religious property owners must be given the benefit of the best treatment which has been afforded to other owners in the jurisdiction.

.............................................................Continue on Next Page (Click here)