California Law Protects Closed Church From Landmarking

In California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church v. City and County of San Francisco, (CA Dist. 1 App., May 20, 2009), a California state appellate court held that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors exceeded its jurisdiction in adopting a resolution beginning the procedure to designate First St. John‟s United Methodist Church as a landmark. The court held that state law permitting religiously affiliated organizations to exempt their noncommercial property from landmarking regulation applies even though the building is no longer being used as a place of worship. The court concluded that the purpose of the state law exclusion was to allow religious institutions to sell their dilapidated churches for a profit. BCN reported on the decision yesterday.