Norris seeks court injunction, judgment
Church: Not an RV park, just a ‘parking lot’
Nearly half of the spaces have opened up recently as several long- term residents have moved their RVs out of Covenant Life Church’s Solid Rock RV Park off Norris Freeway, as shown here on Dec. 22. Just nine of the 16 pull-through spaces are now occupied. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
As the church’s own attorney has acknowledged in open court, the church built and opened its Solid Rock RV Park in 2019 as a commercial enterprise on zoning-restricted church property at Andersonville Highway and Norris Freeway (U.S. 441) without first obtaining a required change in zoning for the property, or getting the necessary building permits.
Norris in October filed a countersuit in the federal court against Covenant Life that seeks to have the court force the shutdown of the RV park, which remains in operation – although now without a bathhouse or an approved fresh water source for its residents.
The church’s attorney, Daniel Sanders of Knoxville, told the Anderson County Chancery Court during an “emergency” hearing in August that the RV park began as a commercial enterprise.
But the church now contends in court filings that there never was such a commercial enterprise as the “Solid Rock RV Park,” and that it has never charged rent for campers using the park.
The church also now insists that it has only operated a “church ministry” called the “Solid Rock Retreat,” which has accepted only “voluntary donations” from people living in recreational vehicles in the park, which has 16 pull-through RV sites.
City officials point out that the church’s own signs at the site – which have since been removed – called it the “Solid Rock RV Park, and that until the city began to take action against the park, the church even had a website called “thesolidrockrvpark.com.”
That website, which also has now been shut down, advertised the site as a regular RV park and campground and allowed potential guests to reserve sites and pay up front for their use. It listed prices for use of the RV spaces, with no suggestion that payment was voluntary or considered merely a “donation.”
Furthermore, several long-time residents of the RV park – which has until recently remained full or close to it since it opened – reported to the city that they were charged $800 per month rent for a space to park their trailers, and that the church automatically collected the rent through monthly debits of their bank accounts.
In its own court filings, the church insists that it has never charged anyone any rent for the RV spaces, but only asked for donations.
The church also contends now that it operates the “retreat” only as a Christian ministry, and that it’s just a “parking lot,” and was never intended to be an RV park:
“ … (T)he Church provides overnight parking and accommodation to congregants, missionaries, and others in need as a form of Christian retreat and an exercise of deeply held religious belief,” attorney Sanders said in a letter to the city included in a court filing. “I am informed that no commercial transactions are involved.
“Rather, the Church accepts offerings essential for the maintenance of its facilities on a free-will basis.
“Individuals who utilize the overnight parking areas receive prayer and reading of Holy Scripture. They are expected to attend worship services, commune with Church leaders, and participate in other religious programs available on the Church property.
“Indeed, the Church offers certain religious programs tailored to the needs of those who use the overnight parking at times when regular congregants are not present at the Church. Missionaries utilize Church facilities to further their ministries and other charitable and religious purposes.”
The church also argues in its court filings that it’s use of the property for the overnight parking of RVs is allowed under city zoning laws because the area is simply a “parking lot,” not an RV park.
City officials contend that if it is only a parking lot, the church would not have needed to install water, sewer and electrical hookups to each of the 16 spaces, nor would it have needed to build a bathhouse – which had a sign on it saying, “Solid Rock RV Park.”
Additionally, the church had applied to and received a permit from the Tennessee Department of Health earlier this year to operate the RV park as an “organized camp,” the city’s filings note.
Norris also denies Covenant Life’s claim that it would suffer harm through a loss of “donations” if it is forced to shut down the RV park.
In its latest court filing, requesting the injunction and summary judgment, the city says:
“To the extent Covenant Life argues that it would suffer harm, it has only itself to blame.
“It declined at every stage to engage in the permitting and approval process that every citizen must follow.
“It should not be allowed to argue substantial harm, or argue that a significant bond should be required, where this action is the result of its own obstinance rather than any wrongful act on the part of the City.”
To the extent that the current permanent residents of the RV park would be harmed by the court ordering them moved off the church’s property, the city has offered to give them 30 days to find new places to park their trailers.
“ … (T)he City has made appropriate concessions to accommodate the tenants of the RV Park,” the city’s filing notes. “That will mitigate any potential harm to third parties.”
In closing, in its Dec. 8, 2023, filing with the U.S. District Court, Norris says:
“The City has demonstrated that all of the factors supporting a grant of preliminary injunctive relief have been met. This Court should enter a preliminary injunction in the City’s favor … “
In November, the church quietly tore down and removed the RV park’s bathhouse in an apparent tacit admission that its construction as part of a recreational-vehicle park on church property was not legal under Norris building and zoning codes.
But the city also noted in the Dec. 8 court filing that Covenant Life even violated city ordinances in its destruction of the bathhouse, by doing so without a city permit.
City council members authorized the countersuit and the move of the case to federal court from Anderson County Chancery Court after meeting with the city’s lawyers in a closed session Sept. 6.
This move came after the church filed its own lawsuit in Chancery Court in August, seeking to prevent the city from turning off water service to the church in response to Covenant Life’s action to provide Norris city water to the Solid Rock RV Park in violation of a June agreement with the city not to do so.
In its own lawsuit against the city, Covenant Life’s attorney argued that Norris was in violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in threatening to cut off water to the church without first going through court to do so.
The 14th amendment says, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
During the hearing in Chancery Court on Aug. 18, Chancellor James W. Brooks Jr. found no grounds for a claim based on the 14th amendment, and declined to issue the restraining order sought by the church.
But city officials have said that by opening a claim under the Constitution, Covenant Life cleared the way for moving the case to federal court.
the U.S. District Court in Knoxville.