Arlington County, Virginia has a prime location for a new affordable housing development. Officials hope that subsidizing a new 10-story development with 8 floors of apartments will ease the crisis caused by rapidly escalating property values. There's just one potential problem: the bottom 2 floors they are building will be a new sanctuary and church building for First Baptist Church of Clarendon. A resident has filed suit, claiming the arrangement violates the separation of church and state. The Washington Post has more:
[Peter] Glassman's complaint alleges that the subsidy per unit — $660,000 — is excessive and proves that the county wanted to bail out the church. In court papers, county attorneys call the claims a "tangled web of allegations." The county says that its portion of the subsidy is $186,500 an apartment and that a separate nonprofit group, the Views at Clarendon, will develop and manage the apartments. Three church members serve on the nonprofit group's seven-member board.
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Integrating a church sanctuary with condominiums or offices is just beginning to happen in many communities, but a factor in the Clarendon lawsuit is how the church is incorporated into the new development's design. The church and the housing above it will share an entrance, a lobby, an elevator and other elements."Residents will literally pass through the church's property, overlook the church's steeple and be subject daily to the church's message," the suit says.
Read the complaint here.
