Antioch church's resale shop can operate, with accessible restroom facilities
Editor's note: This story has been changed to clarify several points. The shop on the church property uses volunteers and is considered a ministry and legally permitted religious accessory use by village zoning code. According to its attorney, the church chose to install a bathroom if the village agreed to recognize the ministry as a permitted use on the property. The church believes it always has been in compliance with relevant codes, the attorney said.
Legal action between the village of Antioch and God's Will Resale Shop on the grounds of St. Ignatius Episcopal Church has been settled.
The village agreed the shop is a church ministry and as such is a legally permitted religious accessory use on the property at Deep Lake Road and Depot Street. The consent decree says the church will build and install an Illinois Plumbing Code-compliant bathroom and a drinking fountain in the converted storage building by Sept. 1 but can ask for extensions.
"In the grand scheme of things, I don't know anybody was terrifically harmed by this, but you have to have compliance with the building codes," and they have to be enforced, said Robert Long, an attorney representing the village.
Sorin A. Leahu, an attorney representing the church, was not immediately available Monday but said Thursday the resale shop is not a commercial enterprise and is a religious ministry run by volunteers, not employees.
In October, the village filed for an injunction in Lake County circuit court to close the resale shop as an illegal operation inside a converted storage building in a residential area, and state law required a handicapped-accessible bathroom customers those working there, the village contended.
Church officials claimed the property should not be restricted because the building is used for the ministry and there was an agreement 60 years ago that all buildings on the 5.1-acre site are part of the overall ministry.
The parties worked for some time to resolve the issue, according to court documents. The matter was referred to the village zoning board after the church unsuccessfully petitioned the Illinois Department of Public Health to waive the bathroom requirement. The village filed the legal action after the church refused to move the resale shop inside the main church, according to court documents.
The village last Friday said in a notice "all matters involving the zoning and building codes" in the legal action have been settled and resolved.
Long said the village agreed it was an appropriate use of land in the residential zoning district.
"It's OK to run a religiously affiliated resale shop," he said but a handicapped-accessible bathroom is required, he said.
Leahu said the church did not concede the handicap accessible bathroom is required. However, in an effort to be "peacemakers" and as a compromise agreed to install the bathrooms if the village agreed to recognize the ministry use as permitted on the property. He said the church believes it always was in compliance with relevant codes.