A more than three-year costly court battle between the City of
Morgan Hill and San Jose Christian College has ended. To date, the
lawsuit has cost the city approximately $200,000 in attorney fees.
That money cannot be recovered, City Attorney Helene Leichter said
Thursday.
A more than three-year costly court battle between the City of Morgan Hill and San Jose Christian College has ended.
To date, the lawsuit has cost the city approximately $200,000 in attorney fees. That money cannot be recovered, City Attorney Helene Leichter said Thursday.
All the college’s court costs for the several appeals have been paid for by the Pacific Justice Institute. No estimate of those costs was available.
The City Council accepted Wednesday night an offer for the college to drop the lawsuit, which was headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, if the city would not attempt to collect approximately $2,500 in the latest costs for defending itself. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had awarded the city such costs in a ruling in June.
The college sued under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 – (RLUIPA) in June 2001 after the City Council refused to rezone the now-closed Saint Louise Hospital building on Cochrane Road and Highway 101 from medical to educational use. SJCC wanted to move its campus onto the site.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” Lichter said. “The city is very gratified the litigation has finally come to an end. We deeply regret that this entity has litigated to this extent and public cost.
“We would much rather have spent the money on such things as repaving steets.”
The college, now named William Jessup University, opens Monday in the Sierra foothill community of Rocklin.
“We’re very pleased to be where we are now,” Joe Womack, college vice president for advancement, said Thursday. “We weren’t going to move to Morgan Hill.
“The entire process has cost a lot of money. Institutionally we don’t the time to be looking at the past. We decided at this point it was time to move on.”
The college is located on a 150-acre site that once housed a furniture manufacturing facility.
The legal issue was the freedom of religious institutions to act as they wish under normal circumstances without governmental interference or – from the city’s point of view – a city’s right to zone property in the best interest of its residents. The college claimed the city was in violation of RLUIPA.
RLUIPA requires that a governing body not impose a burden on a person, group or institution that would keep them from practicing their normal religious activities.
The city based its denial on the its preference to retain the building for its intended purpose and on SJCC’s failure to comply with the CEQA-based re-zoning requirements. CEQA is the California Environmental Quality Act.
Many doctors, labs and an urgent care center left town after the Daughters of Charity closed the Morgan Hill facility in 1999.
