SAN JOSE, Calif.  A zoning battle is looming between a 4,000-member church intent on moving into a South San Jose technology park and city officials, who want to save the park for tax-generating businesses.
Family Community Church wants to purchase two vacant buildings, with 128,640 square feet and 789 parking places on 11 acres in the park, according to a news report in The Mercury News.
The church partly financed the purchase by selling its current location, which it must vacate by August 2005. To keep the deal alive, it must put up $200,000 in non-refundable escrow today and close escrow by Nov. 15.
The church applied in July for a conditional use permit for a mixed-use industrial overlay, the only action church officials thought they needed in order to move.
But city Planning Director Stephen Haase notified the Rev. Bill Buchholz the church would need to apply for a general-plan amendment instead.
Buchholz told the newspaper he was stunned because city officials did not tell him about the time-consuming requirement during extensive talks he had with them.
The city, which has made it clear it does not support the zone change, estimates 620 jobs and $200,000 in tax revenue would be lost if the church plan is allowed.
Planning officials said they do not think the zoning laws run afoul of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which prohibits cities from impeding religious expression by imposing burdensome land-use regulatations.
According to the news report, officials maintain that hazardous chemicals stored and used in the industrial and manufacturing zone would allow them to circumvent the law in the interest of public safety.
Meanwhile, the church took its case to the city council. Buchholz presented council members with 20,000 letters from the congregation seeking the council's support. He said the church would sue under the federal law if the city does not relent.
If the church is left without a home when new owners take possession of its current facility, Buchholz vowed to take that to City Hall as well.
"I guess we'll have to go to the front steps of City Hall and have church out in the street," he said.
