A local historic preservation group has filed both a federal lawsuit and a state appeal in an attempt to stop the demolition of the shuttered Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in downtown Burlington.
Preservation Burlington, along with Burlington residents Karyn Norwood and Liisa Reimann, are seeking to reverse a Jan. 17 zoning permit issued by the city of Burlington to allow the demolition of the former cathedral at 20 Pine St. The group filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, along with a motion to halt any demolition work to the building or its landscaping.
The cathedral parish trust and the city of Burlington are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Ron Wanamaker, president of Preservation Burlington, said Wednesday that the group also filed an appeal to the state Environmental court to challenge the review board’s decision. He described the group’s strategy as a “two-pronged approach.”
“In issuing the demolition permit, the City did not apply the zoning standards and regulations which govern zoning requests in the City’s downtown district,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint. “Although the City noted that the demolition request failed to meet such standards, it stated that it was prohibited from applying them by (state law).”
According to the state law cited by the Burlington Development Review Board in its decision, “churches and other places of worship, convents, and parish houses” are outside of a municipality’s regulatory authority.
In their filing, the plaintiffs argue that the state law in question favors religious organizations unconstitutionally, specifically violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits Congress from making laws about the establishment of religion.
“Simply put, if the former cathedral were a theater or art gallery, it could not be torn down without review under the local zoning ordinance,” the plaintiffs said.
They filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court “because the case presents a federal question” about the application of state law, according to the complaint.
The former cathedral, built in the late 1970s, closed after its final Mass in 2018. The closure occurred after the parish merged with another parish, the Cathedral of St. Joseph on Allen Street. Monsignor Peter Routhier of the Cathedral of St. Joseph told the Development Review Board in January that the parish viewed tearing down a closed church as a “healing” process and argued against a change of use.
Parish leaders have said they hope to sell the property following the cathedral’s demolition. Routhier said in a letter accompanying the permit application that a buyer would be likely to pursue “redevelopment of the property.”
Wanamaker said Wednesday that he hopes the discovery process in the environmental case would allow the group to find out “who is buying it and why.”
While the Development Review Board said in its January decision that the former cathedral doesn’t meet the definition of historic since it is less than 50 years old, Preservation Burlington has pointed to its architecture by Edward Larrabee Barnes and its landscape design by Vermont-based landscape architect Dan Kiley.
Attorney John Franco confirmed on Wednesday that he would be representing the parish trust but declined to comment. Acting Burlington City Attorney Kimberlee Sturtevant could not immediately be reached.
