The three-judge 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard from attorneys representing Niwot-based Rocky Mountain Christian Church and Boulder County.
The county is appealing a 2008 decision by a federal jury that the county commissioners violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act by denying the church’s request to expand.
In 2004, the church asked to add 132,000 square feet to its 106,000-square-foot campus at North 95th Street and Niwot Road. The addition would include a gymnasium, an education building, a multipurpose chapel building and art gallery.
Boulder County turned down the church’s request in 2006, claiming the expansion conflicted with neighboring open space and would overwhelm the area.
The church claims that Boulder County is guilty of discrimination because it did not treat its proposal as it would a secular business or institution. That is a clear violation of RLUIPA, passed in 2000 by Congress to protect churches in land-use issues, said Kevin Baine, who represented the church Monday.
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