The following comes from an August 20 story on Christian Newswire.
Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship (“The Barn”) is gearing up to file a federal lawsuit against the County of Riverside, in the event the county continues its ban on churches in the Temecula Wine Country, an area that is being expanded from approximately 7,000 acres to over 18,990 acres. A public hearing will occur on Wednesday, August 22 over the fate of churches in this region. The hearing will position the Wine Country Vintners Association against the church congregation and many other Christians from the area.
Trying to be a good neighbor, Pastor Clark Van Wick met with a few vintners in an attempt to appease them, but was told, “We don’t want your kind out here.”
On the heels of taking a stand in support of Chick-fil-A, this land use issue has raised the ire of Christians throughout the county because of the hostility toward Christians in the Wine Country.
Local churches have submitted over 3,200 letters to the county asking to overturn the ban. For more information on reversing the ban on churches, including links to a television interview and newspaper articles, go to www.WineCountryFreedom.com.
The Barn received its nickname because the church started meeting in a dilapidated barn in the Wine Country at a time before the ban on churches was instituted. In 1999, the Barn received permission from the county to remodel the barn and build a new church on the site after a hotly contested public hearing process where the same vintners opposed the building of the church.
Shortly after giving the church approval through the public use permit process in 1999, and under apparent pressure from the area vintners, the County quietly passed a new ordinance banning all churches from the Wine Country. The Barn was grandfathered-in as an existing nonconforming use and completed its approved building in 2002. The Barn was the only existing church in the Wine Country at the time. Although the church could still meet in the Wine Country, it would never be able to expand its facilities any further because of the ban that was in place and no other churches would be able to operate in the Wine Country.
The church just recently learned of the ban on churches when it sought to obtain a permit to expand its church facilities and to build a small private country school for grades K-8. Of course, the expansion of the facilities is now prohibited.
Concurrently with the church’s expansion efforts, the County is holding public hearings on its plan to expand the Wine Country from 7,000 acres to 18,990 acres. The church is simply asking that the county amend its own ordinance and its own expansion plans so that churches, synagogues, other houses of worship, and private schools be designated as permitted uses.
Under the current and future zoning ordinances, Wineries are allowed to have giant weddings, concerts and plays, but no new churches can assemble to worship. And the only existing church, the Barn, is prohibited from expanding. The local vintners, with their political clout, don’t want churches nearby and have influenced the county to zone out churches….
Hundreds of area Christians and church members are expected to attend the planning commission hearing. As a sign of thanks, the church will serve Chick-fil-A to all those who attend during the lunchtime break.
Hearing details:
August 22, 2012
9:00 AM
Riverside County Planning Commission Hearing
Temecula City Hall
41000 Main Street
Temecula, CA
To read entire story, click here.
While my sympathies are first and always with a church, I am confused as to why the church can’t be built elsewhere? Zoning laws abound in this nation, and churches are usually located on land specifically zoned for them, particularly in a planned community such as Temecula. It seems to me that the planning commissioners are trying to zone land use to create escapist moods appealing to tourists, and folks bent on a wine-tasting vacation are likely to want to be free of visual reminders of conservative Christians, who often disapprove of drinking. Perhaps the church should sell its (probably valuable) land to the highest bidder and buy another parcel in town where they could expand all the way to mega-church status without any local zoning limitations. Is there a problem with so doing that this story isn’t telling us?
ML: I hate to point this out, but if you understand the history of the “wine country” you would know that mission churches (most of them Catholic) abounded during the early days of California. Fr. Juniper Serra plant the first vines to produce wine for ecclesiastical use which gradually became a way to make money and eventually became the wine industry of today. Perhaps if both parties recall the beauty of the mission style churches (which many of the expensive wineries copy when building their tasting rooms) something historic and beautiful can come of this.
If the folks can agree that the mission theme (no new age ugly churches) can be carried out, everyone should be able to get along. Except for those who just plain hate religion and don’t want to give up the $$ from the “wedding industry.”
Apparently gone are the days when the Catholic Owned Vintage farms built Catholic Churches for their families and employees!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I just wish to add; as usual the Church, which was instrumental in the early days of the wine industry, in the building of our education system, in establishing hospitals and clinics and in caring for the poor, is now the entity that is unwelcome in day to day lives in this secular society …hmmm…seems like history has been re-written to omitt the role of the Catholic Church in the history of this country.
Those wine folks have convenient amnesia.
Happy hour vs happy faces.
happy hour versus unhappy afterlife… :(
so if a porn store wanted to open are they more allowed than any church? Just wondering about that logic there…..
This is silly. A county cannot outlaw the building of a church. Some cities/counties get upset when prime land is filled by non-tax paying entities, but in the end there is little they can do. A non-story.
Eminent domain allows govt to steal property and lie about it.
The non-story will generate a handsome First Amendment lawsuit for the Prots, unless TPTB in Riverside wise up in a hurry.
Everyone (including the Church) should just boycott ALL wines from California until this discrimination stops and Maryanne, why are you so confused about right or wrong? This is an attack against God, even though it is not a Catholic Church trying to set it’s roots there. These people are hypocrites and should be ashamed of themselves. This would be a good place for a Mosque and I just bet that they would not refuse the Muslims, as they would not only have to face them, but, will also be attacked by Obama and his goons. +JMJ+
JMJ — you don’t need to boycott all wines from California, just the ones from Temecula.
Tesoro Winery is a winery in Temecula owned and operated by a Catholic couple. I once read a story that they hoped to open a Catholic gift store in their winery. I don’t know if they did, but clearly they are not one of the anti-religious wineries in Riverside County.
Peggy, if everybody boycotted ALL California wines, then the those wineries that are not bigoted would put pressure on the bigots to change their attitudes and welcome Christian churches in their neighborhood for the workers. This sounds so much like the old South where the Negros were not wanted and even the Northerners were not wanted, until they woke up and found that the Yankees had money to waste. I bet that they would welcome ‘p,p’ with open arms. +JMJ+
I would prefer something far more direct. How about if the cognizant bishop leased (or borrowed) a small storefront in that area, dressed it up as a Catholic place of worship and made a priest available to offer a monthly Sunday Mass?
That would require boldness and commitment, Rodda.
This in turn awaits persecution, and the apostasy of the wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Give it five years tops.
“Under the current and future zoning ordinances, Wineries are allowed to have giant weddings, concerts and plays, but no new churches can assemble to worship.”
aha!
THIS may be part of the problem: the wineries want to have a monopoly on weddings in a lovely setting, from which they make a lot of money.
heaven forbid anyone should want to have their wedding in a lowly church, when some fancy-schmany winery is offering great views…!!!
True Catholics should only be married in a Catholic Church by a Catholic Priest!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Too many people spend a year planning for a wedding and no time planning for a marriage!
thanks for the update, KEN, but this story is about a protestant chuirch that’s having problems.
also, just fyi, true catholics can also get married by a deacon or a bishop.
This isn’t about religion. Churches have weddings. Sometimes it’s more convenient to have the reception at the same site. If the church location is already in a country setting, why go elsewhere. It cuts into the wineries often lucrative event business. We should have the names of the wineries involved, so we know which ones to avoid.
How about reacting the Wedding Feast at Cana? That might put the vintners out of business.
They’re busy looking for that miracle wine, as we speak.
More churches, greater traffic; build a school, more traffic and a desire to build houses near the church and school. Higher tax rate and the eventual pushing out of the vintners and farmers who can’t afford the inflated taxes nor put up with the hostility of urbanites who dislike farm dust, smells, and activities. Let the churches stay out of the arable land use areas; the “progress” they encourage is destructive to the environment.
Ever notice that they always build roads and infrastructure along rivers and the best farm and wildlife land? Better they halt new construction other than in urban regions, and then build it up so as to avoid building it out.
I lived in Temecula and then the Wine Country of which this article speaks. I attended a number of services at that Church which is located on the main road between Temecula and the Wine Country. My guess is that Arness is spot on! Those Vintners have signs all along that road of Events, events and more events. Really the signs are much more obtrusive than the little Calvary Chapel Barn sign. Maryanne L. should think about where she lives and how it would feel to have someone tell her that she is not wanted in her neighborhood after living there for years, being a good neighbor, providing hope and lots of fun for her kids etc.. The Vintners should back off and leave Calvary Chapel to it’s business and mind their own! They have plenty of events and people visiting those events such as Church goers! They are biting off their own paw those big dummies!
This is illigal, somewhere, I think
The wines aren’t good in that area, anyway. It’s too hot there do the grapes produce low acid wines. They should build churches with AC and promote prayer :).
The figure of 18,990 acres works out to just under 30 square miles, or a rectangle six miles by five miles. ( I leave the rest of the geometry to the reader). That’s a huge area in which to ban all churches, and related facilities, especially in a growing area like Temecula. I hope the Church wins this one. I wonder what the vintners will try when the price of land (and related housing property tax) makes wine growing not the best use of that land.
If the Church loses, I hope the facts, the law, and financial support will permit a federal lawsuit to get the required zoning.
JMJ, what do you mean by asking why am I so confused about right and wrong? Where do I evince confusion? Did you mean to assert that I am wrong and you are right? If so, about what, pray tell? Clarity in debate is always welcome. If you would like to draw me into a debate, please lay out the challenge more clearly, define the area or areas with which you are in disagreement, and make your case. I do not feel confused about what I posted, as my words are factual in the main and opinion where stated. I am confused, however, about your unclear assertion and invite clarification. Thank you.
Maryanne, simple as you say that you are confused and you just cannot see the bigotry and hatred that these people are showing. How many of the vine workers are not from the area and NEED a place to worship? Maybe you have a Church in every neighborhood around you, but, these people don’t. Change the word ‘your kind’ and replace it with a word of your choice, such as Negro, Muslim, Pentecostals, etc. and what do you have? Get the point? +JMJ+
Boy, do I remember that day’s sampling excursion through Napa and Sonoma Counties’ wine country … By the time we hit Sonoma Joe’s (with the little pig running around on the front porch) in the evening, there was literally no confusion whatsoever left to the imagination. Party included two graduate wine making, grape growing students, one character who grew up summers in his various uncles’ Swiss breweries and wineries and who could recite French plays in impressively well developed French, and who could with the flare of the “Flim Flam Man” (George C Scott character in movie) bamboozle the winery staff into bringing forth their most reserved samples from the furthest hiding places … and then to cap it all off, that former Madam who owned and ran Sonoma Joe’s, a place near the museum house build by the late Jack London, great author of Sea Wolf. Themz wuz the daze. Maryanne, were you saying something about confusion? or was it about Confucious?
That is wine country! How long will that be so if it is filled with churches and schools? After the state’s agricultural areas has been destroyed by mindless urban development the people still don’t get it. And, please, not the self righteous comments about churches. The dioceses have been closing down many schools and churches throughout the state since Vatican II and at a greater rate, lately, to pay off the damage from the “scandals”.
Let’s try to fill the churches that we have for now before coveting land for more costly and impractical expansion.
BARON, uh, hello?
churches are only built where people need them, and even people live in the wine country – not just grapes.
as for churches being closed, this is not due to the child abuse disaster, but because in some neighbnorhoods there are not enough Catholics and Catholic priests nowadays to keep the parish going in terms of maintenance, salaries, seismic retro-fitting, etc.
in rome itself many churches were closed because there were too many to maintain; now some of them are used for other purposes.
Baron, now just why have we lost so many of our schools, Churches and seeing more Catholic hospitals going secular? The main reason, is NOT the horrible homosexual scandals of some of the priests, but the SCANDAL caused by the nuns deflecting to satan and losing their right to be called “SISTER”, when they left their convents, took off their wedding gowns and put on the rags of the world, abandoned the children and those that need medical help in the hospitals. The 60’s was the start of the ME generation, the same ones that abandoned God and His Church, and are now “raising” children today. What was the parable of today’s Gospel (Matt 22:1-14) all about? Read it slowly and prayerfully and see!! +JMJ+
In that article, I saw no reason given for the wineries to oppose a church in “their” region of the county. Either the anti-church sentiment in the county government is very high, or it wasn’t much of a reason. But that ban on one type of gathering place seems extremely unreasonable to me, and should be overturned for just that. They shouldn’t discriminate against anyone, especially without a valid reason.
I like the part that says “quietly passed.” Well zoning board members the cat is out of the bag now! I will pray today for this, it is the feast of the Queenship of Mary. Is this about prejudice or money? Probably both. How far do the owners and their workers have to travel to church and take their children to school? I would like to know what else is banned, or is it strictly churches? There are always zoning laws, of course, but my question is, does the law say NO Churches anywhere within our community. If so, outrageous! Would they let a beautiful Benedictine Monastery buy some property if they were going to grow grapes for wine? Lets pray for that. Do they hire any wonderful Mexican employees? How bout a colorful chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe? How about a church and school of every denomination sprinkled among the vineyards. I know I am being a smarty pants, but NO churches….come on now. My prayers will not be directed toward the yuppy Wine Country Vintners today.
Did you miss the line that said this occurred after the Church supported Chik fil a?
Forget wine country; point the way to beer country.
I once drove through the Temecula wine country, and it is a sculpted and scenic ride, very upscale. Beautiful estates … tourist trap … oops, did I say that? I really do not see the point of zoning for anything other than the wineries. There is no residential and no other commercial and no other infrastructure in that area — and there is no point to putting anything else there besides wine stuff. Why? Because everything else can be found only a few minutes and even less than a few miles away in the Temecula region. There is simply no point to intruding on that ambiance … of course putting a giant staging area for the WTCU with its perpetual processions with brass cymbals and parade drums would be the exception.
I meant WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) but of course was thinking in Latin, and thus got the acronymical letters somewhat backwards … not that Latin is a backwards language, no, not that. Rather Latin puts the English cart before the horse … or perhaps the English do that on their own. Whatever the case might be, any disruption of Temecula Wine Country would have an effect on the wine produced there, and it would have no negative effect in keeping non winery enterprise movements at bay.
JLS, thinking of you:
Oh! Was I speaking Latin again?
– Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar?
Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips out.
– Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur.
I picked it up here and there. Really, Latin isn’t all that hard.
– Id legi modo hic modo illic. Vero, Latine loqui non est difficilissimum.
I’ll eat more chicken and drink more Italian wine.
Well it is possible that Planned Parenthood can open up a killing mill there? It’s be interesting to know, if they are so against a church, are there any laws against Planning Parenthood opening there or a porn shop? Well I guess it doesn’t matter but I’m with Juergensen I eat more chicken and prefer Italian wine or Australian wine.
Your wine sales are going down!
The problem is that there are restrictions about spraying for pesticides near schools. The Calvary Chapel wants to build a school. If the vintners can’t spray for bugs, they are out of business. They’ve spent millions of dollars on this industry and it should be protected. If you let one church in, it opens the floodgates. If you have 30 churches some day on a two lane road, with similar service times – it clogs the traffic, ruins the bucolic feel of wine country and discourages visitors. The vintners have a right to protect their investments. It’s not a violation of freedom of speech but a protection of their expensive investment and livelihood. Likewise, a church school is protected from illicit uses such as adult bookstores and the like from being built within an area near them. Zoning laws are there to protect both sides. If anyone sees this simply as a violation of freedom of speech or as vintners hating religion, they are not analyzing the issues but only having a knee jerk response that will solve nothing.