A zoning board mistakenly denied a pentecostal church’s bid to hold services at a Long Island site, a Brooklyn appeals panel has ruled in overturning a lower court. The Tabernacle of Victory Pentecostal Church requested a special exception permit and an area variance to allow religious services and off-street parking at a Franklin Square site owned by the church. Although the church’s proposal would have limited both the number of people who could enter and number of cars that could be parked there, the Town of Hempstead Zoning Board of Appeals denied the church’s applications. Acting Nassau County Supreme Court Justice John Galasso (See Profile) denied the church’s Article 78 petition.
In a unanimous Dec. 5 decision, the Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed Galasso and voided the zoning board’s denial; it remanded the matter to the zoning board and directed it to grant the applications “under such reasonable conditions as will allow the proposed religious use while mitigating any detrimental or adverse effects upon the surrounding community.”
