Church Challenges Denial Of Permit For Music Festival

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Tribune-Review reported Saturday that a suit has been filed in federal district court in Pittsburgh by William D. Pritts, founder of the Church of Universal Love and Music (CULM). He alleges that Fayette County officials infringed his First Amendment free exercise rights last year when they denied his request for a special-exception permit to conduct nondenominational, interfaith services on his agricultural property in Bullskin Township. The county zoning board said that Pritts was operating a music business, not a church. Neighbors have complained for five years about the noise and traffic from day-long summer funk, jazz and rock concerts featuring well-known musicians on Pritts' 147-acre property. The complaint in the lawsuit alleges: "Defendants have chosen an overbroad prohibition of CULM from holding further events of any type, religious or commercial at the facility that places the maximum burden on CULM's religious exercise, despite the availability of several alternatives that do not burden the CULM's religious exercise."