Avondale church shuttered over zoning violations

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Avondale Estates shut down a church that recently set up shop in the central DeKalb County city, but why depends on whom you ask.

City officials said the Christ Liberty Family Center on Maple Street doesn’t have enough room for parking.

The owner of the building, Joe Gargiulo, said the code violations are just a way for the city to lash out over its failed annexation bid on land that he owns.

And church leaders don’t understand how they ended up in the predicament or how they can get out.

“We’re here to be a life giver and to uplift the city,” said Pastor Rose Thomas, overseer of the 50-member church. “We are not here to break any laws.”

The church opened on the dead-end road in December, after members volunteered to fix up the building to use as their sanctuary.

Parishioners soon began a routine: weekly service on Sundays, Bible study on Wednesday nights and prayer services on Thursday nights.

The activity drew the attention of city code enforcement officers, who discovered that the church never requested a permit from the city.

Further inspection revealed the church didn't meet local zoning rules that require houses of worship to have three acres of land and 100 feet of frontage for parking.

Last week when the city issued a code violation, it said all services at the site had to stop.

“It’s not the city’s fault,” City Manager Clai Brown said. “It should have been the landlord and tenant who did their due diligence in the beginning.”

Brown said the city attorney advised that the citation did not violate the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which limits land-use regulation against religious groups, because the church and landlord didn’t follow proper procedure.

Gargiulo has since tried to make up for that oversight by offering to let the church use land he owns across the street to meet the three-acre requirement for parking.

But that land is outside the city limits, so the city said the church can't use it to meet the city requirement.

That refusal, Gargiulo said, is a sign that officials are still angry that their bid to annex land on College Avenue from Maple Street to Sams Crossing failed in the state Legislature this year -- for the third time.

Gargiulo owns 10 of 23 parcels in that annexation zone.

“This church isn’t bothering anybody, but (city leaders) are ticked off over the annexation,” Gargiulo said. “Now they’re going after a church? That just rubs me the wrong way.”

City leaders have met with Gargiulo, trying to broker a deal. At this point, the main option would be for the church to request a change to zoning laws, so that it could re-open, Brown said.

The church could also relocate elsewhere in the city or try to sway the Board of Mayor and Commissioners to let it use Gargiulo’s land to meet the zoning requirements.

The church has yet to make any requests. Instead, members have been praying for an answer ever since the church shut down, Thomas said.

So far, the disruption has been minimal. The church canceled Sunday service for Mother’s Day, to allow the volunteer pastors time with their own families.

But Thomas said e-mails and calls have been coming in this week, with members wanting to know if they will be able to attend services this weekend.

“People want to come,” Thomas said. “It feels like home to us. We pray we can stay.”