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 land that it owns in May Township adjacent to the former Withrow Elementary School. The school wants to moveits students to the former Withrow Elementary and add more classrooms, athletic facilities, and additional parking.

The May Township board on Aug. 8 denied the permit, pointing to a recently enacted moratorium on the “establishment of institutional and non-residential uses.”

The lawsuit says the May Township board violated the school’s First Amendment rights, was arbitrary, and was a violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act because it placed a substantial burden on LCA students’ religious exercise. The school said that it might be forced to close its middle and upper-grade classes by 2029 without the expansion.

The lawsuit comes after several meetings between LCA and the May Township board and some three years of planning by the school.

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

Hoping to consolidate at Withrow Elementary, LCA paid $1.6 million for an additional 73.6-acre plot adjacent to the school in 2023. The land, the former Zahler farm, is split between Hugo and May Township.

The 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 May Township portion of the property.

The school said in its lawsuit that both 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 the LCA plan, granting a building permit in 2022 that allowed LCA to invest $2.1 million into the former Withrow school for renovations.

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

The school said it notified neighbors of the property in 2022 and again in 2023 about its land purchase. About 50 residents in total attended those meetings, and just two expressed concerns over the issues of traffic and lights, according to the suit. The school met with the May Township board in May of 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 the school said it would.

In June, 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 May Town Board Chairman 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 May Township portion of its property had been submitted eight months prior to the July meeting, and that its plans met requirements of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

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

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