A federal judge Wednesday sided with St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in its challenge of zoning restrictions in the city of Brookings that limited the number of days the church could operate its soup kitchen.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke found that the city’s land use ordinance “substantially burdens” St. Timothy’s practice of feeding the hungry, a “religious exercise” that is among the “core beliefs that guide the Episcopal church.”

The city also failed to provide any “compelling” interest for restricting the hours and days the church offered free meals, the judge ruled in a 22-page opinion.

The Rev. Bernie Lindley, the church’s vicar who goes by “Father Bernie,” said the church leaders and members are exuberant about the judge’s ruling.

“Ever since I saw that, I’ve been smiling,” he said. “I’m so glad to know that the judge very much understood our position.”

On Oct. 25, 2021, the Brookings City Council amended the zoning code in the southern Oregon coast city of nearly 7,000 people. It created a new conditional use for residential districts called “benevolent meal services” that allowed free meals only twice a week, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and for no longer than three hours a day. The church filed a lawsuit in 2022, challenging the ordinance.

For more than a year, as the suit was pending, the church continued serving meals three to four days a week, and the city refrained from issuing any violations for not adhering to the city’s new ordinance. That changed in mid-April of last year when the city put the church on notice that it needed to apply for a conditional use permit to allow its soup kitchen to provide free meals two days a week or face a fine.

Since 1953, the church has operated on Fir Street in Brookings. St. Timothy’s was among 21 institutions located in a single-family residential district. The others included hospitals, nursing homes, day cares, country clubs and golf courses. Because the church pre-dated the city zoning code, it operated under a “de facto conditional use permit.”

The church’s clergy and members have provided food to the hungry for over a decade, and had been offering meals three to four times a week, though during the pandemic provided meal service up to six times per week. The city’s mayor, in fact, managed the meal service from 2012 to 2018.

By limiting the number of days per week that St. Timothy’s can provide benevolent meal service, the city ordinance forced the church leaders and members “to choose between acting in accordance with their faith or facing a fine of $720 per day,” thus putting substantial pressure on them to “violate their beliefs,” the judge wrote.

The judge also rejected the city’s argument that the ordinance was needed to maintain peace and order and prevent crime, and that it was a “permissive act” to allow such meal services to continue in an area zoned single-family residential.

“The Court can find no logical, causal relationship between the limitation and these interests,” Clarke wrote.

Further, the judge noted St. Timothy’s has had a “decade-long record of benevolent meal service, with City knowledge, and without city interference.”

The judge pointed out that none of the other non-residential institutions in the single-family residential area — golf courses, day cares, hospitals — had their meal services restricted.

“It is unclear why a church serving meals to the public for free would be considered a ‘restaurant’ under the City zoning laws, but a golf course or bed and breakfast serving paid meals would not,” the opinion said. “This blatant inconsistency undermines the idea that without the Ordinance and a conditional use permit, St. Timothy’s would be disallowed from serving meals at all. If the other non-single-family residential uses can serve meals unrestricted, why not a church?”

The judge found the city ordinance violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act that prohibits the government from adopting land use regulations that impose a substantial burden on religious exercise unless it’s done in a least restrictive way for a compelling interest.

The judge declined to identify the “true intentions” of the city’s effort to restrict the church’s free meals, yet noted that city officials had commented about the church’s ministry drawing “vagrants” who were a “blight” on Brookings, the opinion said.

The judge denied the city’s motion to dismiss the case because it had adopted a subsequent amendment to the ordinance that would allow meals served up to three days a week, instead of two.

Former Brookings Mayor Ron Hedenskog testified in a court deposition that limiting the free meal service would help address neighborhood problems. Hedenskog had helped manage the church’s meal services for a decade. He took “a keen interest” in ensuring the free meals would continue but also wanted to address the public safety concerns, according to city lawyers.

In April 2021, the city received a neighbor’s petition urging city officials to “reconsider allowing vagrants to continue to live and congregate” at the church because of vandalism, other crime and unsanitary conditions, according to court records.

Brandon Usry, whose lives across the street from the front of the church, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in November that he started the petition because of the increase in crime in the neighborhood. He said he put up surveillance cameras and frequently calls police because of the drug use, public nudity and fights that occur outside the church.

The judge called the city’s ordinance “ill-conceived,” and urged Brookings city officials to recognize that the homeless are not “vagrants,” but citizens in need.

“The clergy and the congregation at St. Timothy’s have shown that they have been prepared to work with the City to care for those in need, and at the same time preserve the livability of the area for their neighbors by cooperating with law enforcement when necessary,” the judge wrote. “The homeless are not ‘vagrants,’ but are citizens in need. This is a time for collaboration, not ill-conceived ordinances that restrict care and resources for vulnerable people in our communities.”

In November, the U.S. Justice Department filed a court brief backing the church’s suit. Federal lawyers argued that the church’s free meals constitute a religious exercise and that the city’s restrictions amount to discrimination.

Lawyers for the city of Brookings did not respond to messages seeking comment on the ruling.

The church’s vicar said he was surprised the city went as far as it did in trying to defend its ordinance. As the suit was pending, the church has continued its free meal services.

“We never stopped,” Lindley said. “We’re compelled to do these things.’’