The City of Forest Mayor and Board of Alderman unanimously passed Ordinance #473 during their regular meeting in May. This ordinance regulates all new “places of worship” in Forest. The new city regulation requires that all newly established churches, and churches that move to an address in Forest, must build a new facility within the areas zoned C-3 by the city.
The City of Forest has seen the number of new churches and worship centers grow immensely during the last few years, and a majority of religious organizations either buy or rent established commercial buildings. With Ordinance #473 in full effect new churches will no longer have the option of occupying an established commercial building. The only viable avenue for new churches to start worship services in Forest will be to build a new facility.
Mayor Nancy Chambers said that Forest has seen a drastic increase in the number of churches offering a place to worship. “The number of new churches that have formed and started holding worship services in Forest has grown drastically over the last decade,” Chambers said. “All of the new churches appear to have chosen to occupy formerly vacant commercial buildings rather than build a new church or facility, and many of the buildings are not set up to be worship centers.”
Ordinance 473 specifies that all new churches, and any churches relocating will have to be C-3 zoned property, and the facility housing the church will have to be new construction.”
The new ordinance is neither long nor in-depth, but the parameters set by the new city regulations are very clear and concise. City of Forest Ordinance #473 reads as follows:
Ordinance #473 of the City of Forest Establishing Places of Worship within the City of Forest
An ordinance establishing areas for places of worship within the City of Forest.
Now therefore be it ordained and enacted by the authority of the City of Forest, Mayor and the Board of Alderman. Zoning and Requirements for places of worship.
1. All new places of worship are required to be in the C-3 zoned areas of the City of Forest and shall be of new construction.
2. At no time shall places of worship occupy an existing commercial building.
3. Any violation of this ordinance shall constitute a misdemeanor and shall be punishable as such.
The mayor said that she and board of alderman agreed that the City of Forest had to take direct action in order to protect commercial properties to allow for future growth.
“The purpose of this ordinance is to protect the availability of commercial buildings for retail and tax based businesses,” Mayor Chambers explained. “It is not intended to be against the establishment of churches, but to better regulate their location.”
Ordinance #473 is set to go into effect on June 15.
