Ocean City and Church Clash Over Shelter, Zoning Rules, and Religious Freedom
OCEAN CITY, Md. — Saint Paul’s by the Sea Episcopal Church was fined by the town of Ocean City Monday and Tuesday morning.
Pastor Jill Williams said the town cited a zoning violation and is fining the church $1,000 each day it is open and operating the shelter. Williams said that besides the citation and fine, she has had no communication with the town. She added that the town sent a letter requesting the church close its shelter, citing the barracks-style sleeping arrangement.
In May, WMDT reported Worcester County’s ruling that people could not sleep on public property. The town of Ocean City demanded that the church cease shelter operations by June 8.
Pastor Williams told WMDT she is moving forward with federal legal action.
“We will seek federal protection under both the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects us because we are a church carrying out our mission. Any zoning regulation cannot infringe upon the church’s right to live its faith, and we still wish to pursue this. We are filing at the federal level,” she said.
She also said the church will continue to operate as a shelter. “We will continue to be open every night as usual. We will continue to feed everyone every day as usual. Next steps are filing at the federal level. We will do that fight as long as it takes and go through that process, as extensive as it may become,” Williams said.
The Town of Ocean City told WMDT that it has no objection to the church operating as a shelter, but the property is not in compliance with zoning restrictions and proper permits were not obtained.
City Manager Terry McGean said, “We do not allow open barracks-style sleeping in Ocean City for any type of use. We have denied permits for open barracks-style sleeping for, for instance, employee housing. This is not specific to the church or to it operating as a homeless shelter.”
He said the church has had ample opportunity to obtain the necessary permits. “The violations we’ve cited them for are purely zoning violations. Again, it is not specific to them operating a shelter. It is what we would do in any situation where the owner of a property has illegally changed its use — in this case, from a meeting room to overnight sleeping. That is the violation they are facing right now. It does not have anything to do with them operating as a shelter.”
The town said it will continue to fine the church each day it operates a shelter with barracks-style housing.
This is an ongoing story. Stay with WMDT for updates.
