Judge orders controversial Moon megachurch to halt services after Christmas

An Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge has ruled that a controversial Moon Township evangelical megachurch may continue to hold services at its Coraopolis Heights Road tent structure through Christmas Day, but from that point on, no services can be held until it obtains the required governmental approvals from the township.

The Revival Today church, described in its own court documents as a local evangelical Christian church that holds “the exuberant celebration of Jesus Christ as one of the core tenets of its faith,” has been used on a regular basis for services since midsummer. The church’s activities on the 35-acre property, which at one time was the Baywood Conference & Lodging Center, have angered some nearby residents who claim the amplified services create a noise nuisance that sometimes lasts until as late as midnight on Sundays.

Church officials, meanwhile, said in documents filed with the township that it has repeatedly monitored and confirmed compliance with township noise ordinances and that “at significant expense” has voluntarily reconfigured its sound equipment to reduce noise levels despite complying with the township’s ordinance.

The township’s concerns, though, aren’t focused on noise issues. Rather, the township claims that Moses Land LLC, which owns the property and leases it to Revival Today for $1 a year, failed to obtain several required permits before using the property to conduct its services and failed to stop using it after the township issued various violation notices.

In granting the township’s request for a preliminary injunction that enjoins Moses Land and Revival Today from using the 18,860-square-foot structure for church services as of Dec. 26, Judge Chelsa Wagner wrote that the two entities must obtain mandatory governmental approvals, reviews, inspections and permits enumerated in the township code.

Wagner wrote that, based on what she heard at a Dec. 5 hearing, Moses Land and Revival Today “can coexist” with the township in accordance with the law.

“Moses Land and Revival presented testimony that they desire and intend to comply with the (township code of ordinances); likewise the Township of Moon represented that it intends to issue the approvals and permits upon Moses Land’s and Revival’s compliance with the code,” Wagner wrote in her court order.”

Wagner wrote that she expects the parties to engage one another in good faith and to rely on the conduct of their respective legal representatives.

Neither of those representatives – Thomas King or Ronald Elliott, the counsel of record for the township, or David Strassburger, the counsel of record for Revival Today – responded to requests for comment on Wagner’s order, which was made available Friday.

David Bachman, chairman of the township board of supervisors, said the township is pleased with Wagner’s decision but because Moses Land and Revival Today applied for a conditional use permit, it’s still a legal matter and he could not comment in detail.

The next meeting pertaining to the conditional use permit application is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 13.

According to court documents filed by the township, Revival Today has been using the structure in question – which Wagner referred to as the “Tent” – since late June and has been holding religious or spiritual services, meetings or other activities “at least weekly if not more frequently” since mid-July despite knowing that no building permit or certificate of occupancy had been issued by the township. The township also maintains that Moses Land and/or Revival Today have not received a conditional use approval to operate as a place of worship on that property.

In addition, the document states that Moses Land/Revival Today never applied for – or received – a grading permit despite clearing nearly 19,000 square-feet of natural terrain or vegetative ground cover and filling, clearing, stripping, excavating and/or grading the area to construct a pad and lay aggregate stone for the base of the tent structure, which is 246 feet long and 82 feet wide.

The township is requiring Moses Land/Revival Today to obtain the conditional use approval, a grading permit for all previously performed and any newly proposed grading work, a stormwater management plan, a subdivision and land development approval and a commercial building permit and commercial occupancy permit for the tent structure.

Attorneys for Moses Land and Revival Today had asked Wagner to continue allowing them to use the tent for Sunday services but nothing else until they:

• Installed ADA-compliant wheelchair ramps;
• Removed and replaced the tent’s vinyl canopy;
• Installed additional rib supports so the tent could maintain snow loads of 25 psi;
• Adopted a safety evacuation plan; and
• Submitted to the township a grading permit application and a building permit application for gas line work performed to heat the tent.

But Wagner’s order means Revival Today cannot continue using the property for services as of Dec. 26. In court documents, Moses Land and Revival Today accused the township of “paint(ing) a deceptively simple picture: Moses Land and Revival Today have not obtained the land use approvals and permits that Moon Township contends are required, so Revival Today must be shut down.” But Moses Land and Revival Today maintain that the church is entitled to protections provided to such institutions through a law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Specifically, according to one of Moses Land and Revival Today’s court filings, the act provides three types of protections to religious institutions, including protection against discrimination and a requirement that religious institutions be treated on equal terms with nonreligious institutions. The third protection element states that religious institutions should be protected from “substantial burdens unless the government demonstrates the imposition of the burden on the institution is in furtherance of a compelling government interest and the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest.”

The court document states that Revival Today has not been treated on equal terms as a nonreligious institution and states as proof that the township did not issue a violation notice or take an other enforcement action when it learned that nearby Montour Heights Country Club did not have a permit for a tent on its property.

The document also states that the injunction that Wagner ultimately granted to the township, which prevents Revival Today from using its leased property for religious services, “would be a substantial burden on Revival Today’s exercise of religion.”