Meeting Ground awaits town's reply to judge's ruling
Group hopes to use Elkton building for religious uses
By Sonia Dasgupta
sdasgupta@cecilwhig.com
Published: Monday, October 27, 2008 5:05 AM CDT
The town of Elkton has 14 days to respond to a judge's order asking it to reconsider allowing a church group to use a building to minister to the homeless.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit on behalf of Meeting Ground, a religious nonprofit group that provides emergency and transitional housing for the homeless, earlier this year after the town banned it from using a commercially zoned building for philanthropy.

The Mary Randall Center, located on North Street in Elkton, was purchased by Meeting Ground to be used as an "empowerment center" for the homeless, providing job counseling, Bible study, showers and meals.  U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake ordered the town to "consider the issuance of all building permits necessary for plaintiffs to commence and complete improvements" and "consider the issuance of all occupancy permits consistent with the progress of improvements to the property."

Blake's order lifts the injunction that barred renovations needed to bring the building up to code for occupancy.

Kevin Karpinski, a Baltimore-based lawyer representing the town, was not available for comment Friday, but on Thursday he said the town has never questioned Meeting Ground's religious work.

"The town has never disputed the group's religious use for the facility, but believe the empowerment aspect, job counseling, showers and meals, are more philanthropic," Karpinski said.

Deborah Jeon, legal director for the ACLU, said the group practices its religion by helping the homeless and the town barring the group from using the facility is restricting their civil liberties.

"They do it because of a religious calling," Jeon said. "And similarly other churches in the area do similar things and they are not barred from those activities."

The Rev. Carl Mazza, director of Meeting Ground, said he must wait until the town replies before he can begin to do improvements.

"Everything's based on the town's reply," Mazza said.

If the town reconsiders, he would like to move ahead with renovations, but it will take time he said, since the 15-month discrepancy has led to a loss of money, volunteers and momentum.

"It's costly to have an unoccupied building," he said, "and usually most volunteers help in the summer."

Mazza said he hasn't had much correspondence with the town for about a year, although a group of Elkton officials, the county and social services have been meeting regularly to discuss homelessness in the area.

"Our main goal is to work cooperatively with the town and other churches to help folks experiencing homelessness," he said.

Due to the fact that the suit is still pending, town officials cannot comment on the proceedings.

A message left for zoning administrator Craig Trostle was not returned.

The town will have to respond to the judge by Nov. 7.