After the Sumner City Council decided to approve the first phase of an expansion project of Calvary Community Church, the church is exercising its right to appeal the decision.

Council approved Phase I after it determined the full project’s size, scope and scale was incompatible with neighboring uses in a low-density residential zone and the hearing examiner’s decision was not correct.

The appeal requests Pierce County Superior Court to review the decision denying approval to construct improvements to the church.

Served Jan. 8 in Pierce County Superior Court, the appeal accuses council of subjectivity and bias and accuses the council of infringing on the right to practice religion by violating the religious land use and institutionalized act.

In the appeal, church’s attorney Jack McCullogh states the city council’s decision is not objective.

“Rather, it is a result of political pressure by influential citizens and personal biases held by one or more council members,” the appeal states.

Unspecified damage claims are sought by the church because the appeal accuses the city’s decision of being “arbitrary and capricious.”

The church asserts it had two experts speak on the record, but there were no experts speaking on the record against the church.

The traffic engineering firm Heath and Associates prepared a traffic impact analysis to address traffic impacts from the full expansion proposal. Sumner’s Public Works Department and third-party engineering firm Parametrix Inc. reviewed the report. In October 2008, Cynthia Park, a transportation engineer with Parametrix, advised the city that Parametrix had undertaken three independent reviews of the Heath analysis. After the third review, Parametrix concluded that the Heath study satisfied the requirements. The appeal challenges an inconsistency between the study and the council’s decision.

“This has been vetted thoroughly by many experts,” Sumner City Attorney Brett Vinson said.

Vinson said the issue of whether the education center is a necessary component to religion could become integral in the proceedings.

“The member services center would be used primarily on Sunday mornings as a type of fellowship hall for members to connect with each other, and it would also serve as a place for visitors and new members to connect and learn more about the Church and its mission,” the appeal states.

Vinson said it’s not uncommon for an appeal to broadly make several claims. He said the council did not overstep their authority, as claimed in the appeal.

“The council made a decision to modify the decision consistent with the authority under the Sumner Municipal Code,” he said.