Private school sues May Township board over permit refusal

A White Bear Lake school has sued the May Township board for refusing to grant a permit needed for an expansion, calling the denial arbitrary and a violation of zoning rules.

The conditional use permit would allow Liberty Classical Academy, a K-12 private Christian school founded in 2003, to build a septic system on its land in May Township adjacent to the former Withrow Elementary School. The school wants to moveits students to the Withrow building and add classrooms, athletic facilities and additional parking.

The township board on Aug. 8 denied the permit, pointing to a recently enacted moratorium on the “establishment of institutional and nonresidential uses.”

The lawsuit says the board violated the school’s First Amendment rights and was arbitrary. The suit also says the board was in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act because it placed a substantial burden on the school’s students’ religious exercise.

The school said it might be forced to close its middle- and upper-grade classes by 2029 without the expansion.

The lawsuit comes after several meetings between Liberty Classical Academy and the township board, and some three years of planning by the school.

Liberty Classical Academy bought Withrow Elementary and nine surrounding acres for $1.3 million in 2022. Some of its students now attend classes at the former school; the remainder are at the Church of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake, where Liberty Classical Academy has a lease through June 2029.

Hoping to consolidate at the Withrow location, the academy paid $1.6 million for an additional adjacent 73.6 acres in 2023. The land, the former Zahler farm, straddles Hugo and May Township.

The private school said in its lawsuit that it plans to grow in phases and that the first phase would require a new septic system on the township portion of the property.

According to the suit, Hugo and May Township consider the land rural residential zoning and that the codes identify a school as a conditional use. Hugo officials have generally supported Liberty Classical Academy’s plan, granting a building permit in 2022 that allowed the school to invest $2.1 million into the Withrow building for renovations.

The academy said in its lawsuit that the existing septic system is failing and needs to be replaced, regardless of expansion plans.

The private school said it notified neighbors of the property in 2022 and 2023 about its land purchase. A total of about 50 residents attended those meetings, and just two expressed concerns over traffic and lights, according to the suit.

The academy met with the May Township board in May 2023, and minutes from that meeting show that the board had no concerns beyond lighting at the time, according to the suit. The board asked if the school could use “down lighting” for its athletic fields, and Liberty Classical Academy said it would.

In June, the Hugo City Council approved a conditional use permit for the school, but the May Township board voted to extend the decision deadline to early August.

The suit says it was at a subsequent meeting in July that Board Chair John Pazlar objected to the plan for the first time, saying “the main concern, based on public comment, is to keep Town of May rural.”

The school said its plans for the township portion of its property was submitted eight months before the July meeting and that they met requirements of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Saying the city codes needed a review, the township board opted instead at its July 25 meeting to pass a one-year moratorium on institutional and nonresidential uses.

When the three-member board denied the Liberty Classical Academy permit in August, it did so on a 2-0 vote. One member, Don Rolf, abstained because he works for the school’s architect.