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<DIV class=body><I>From the Los Angeles Times</I></DIV>
<H1>Churches Putting Town Out of Business</H1>
<DIV class=storysubhead><STRONG>Stafford, Texas, has 51 tax-exempt religious
institutions and wants no more: `Somebody's got to pay for police, fire and
schools.'</STRONG></DIV><FONT size=3>By Lianne Hart<BR>Times Staff
Writer<BR><BR>July 31, 2006<BR><BR></FONT>STAFFORD, Texas — They are not the
words one expects to hear from a politician or a Southerner, and Leonard
Scarcella is both: "Our city has an excessive number of
churches."<BR><BR>Scarcella is mayor of this Houston-area community, which has
51 churches and other religious institutions packed into its 7 square
miles.<BR><BR>With some 300 undeveloped, potentially revenue-producing acres
left in Stafford, officials are scrambling to find a legal way to keep more
tax-exempt churches from building here. <BR><BR>"With federal laws, you can't
just say, 'We're not going to have any more churches,' " Scarcella said. "We
respect the Constitution, but 51 of anything is too much." <BR><BR>Stafford,
population 19,227, is the largest city in Texas without a property tax, and it
depends on sales taxes and business fees for revenue. Nonprofits have been
attracted by its rapid growth and minimal deed restrictions. "It's thrown
everything out of balance, plus providing zero revenue. Somebody's got to pay
for police, fire and schools," City Councilman Cecil Willis said. <BR><BR>In
2003, around the time the 45th church settled in, city leaders began looking for
a way to slow the pace of construction. Public meetings were held; "we had
people of different religions attending, people in their religious garb,
Buddhists in their orange gowns and whatever else, talking about this very
openly," Scarcella said. <BR><BR>An ordinance eventually passed that required
those who wanted to build a church — and other public gathering places, such as
bowling alleys and community halls — to undergo a rigorous review process and
obtain City Council approval.<BR><BR>Before the ordinance, "you could pretty
much come in here and say, 'I want to open up a church,' and I'd say, 'OK,' "
said Gene Bane, the city's director of building permits.<BR><BR>In his office is
a large map of Stafford that is dotted with round yellow stickers, each dot
denoting a church or religious facility. In some parts of town, the dots are so
close together they nearly meld into a big yellow glob.<BR><BR>In one
quarter-mile section near the city center, parishioners can choose among 17
churches. There are three small churches in the Quail Ridge Plaza shopping
center, and three large brick churches on the street behind it. Down the road,
the Evangelical Formosan Church is tucked behind a muffler shop.<BR><BR>"If you
can't find religion in Stafford, Texas, you ain't looking hard enough," Bane
said.<BR><BR>There are no synagogues in Stafford, but there are religious
facilities for Buddhists, Muslims, Chinese Baptists, Filipino Baptists,
Spanish-speaking Baptists, and "every other variety of Christian you can
imagine," Scarcella said. <BR><BR>"As best as we've been able to determine, the
overwhelming majority of people who attend here don't even live in Stafford;
they're coming from everywhere else," Willis said. Elsewhere includes Houston,
about 15 miles northeast, and nearby Sugar Land.<BR><BR>"I don't hate God. I'm
not against America and apple pie," Willis said. "We just have to protect what's
left for commercial development." <BR><BR>Lawyers researching ways to stop
church growth here will report back to city leaders in about six weeks,
Scarcella said. <BR><BR>Lola Onita, assistant pastor at Jesus House Texas, said
churches should be allowed to spread unfettered in a country that respects
religious freedom. "People need a place to worship and hear the word of God,"
she said.<BR><BR>But Nilda Martinez, who owns a flower shop between two
churches, has had enough. "The churches, they're everywhere here," she said.
"There are too many; the city should control it. It hurts the city when you
don't have enough businesses paying taxes."<BR><BR>Willis said he asked the last
six applicants why they wanted to build a church in Stafford. "Every one of them
said they prayed about it, and God said to come here," he said. "I can't compete
with that, so here we are."</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>