There is a lot of information posted over on WWP on the proposed Idle Org in Atlanta, GA. The boys and girls down there are not “making it go right” and the matter is now in federal court. A review of the complaint filed by the church contains some interesting admissions that show how badly the church is doing there and in other areas.
This is a verified complaint meaning that the facts have been sworn to under oath by Deborah Danos, who is listed as the president of the Church of Scientology of Georgia, Inc. Ms. Danos does not appear to be overly qualified for the job as, at least according to Kristi Wachter’s site, she has not yet attested to the state of clear.
http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/d/deborah-danos.html
Nature of the Controversy
The action filed by the church is a rather complex lawsuit involving land use and religious freedom. The church purchased the property in the city of Sandy Springs for the purpose of creating an idle org. The building was too small for their proposed use so the church filed applications for a zoning variance to allow conversion of a basement that had been used as a parking lot by the prior owners to office space and a chapel. If approved, the variance would increase the square footage from roughly 33,000 square feet to almost 44,000 square feet.
The zoning regulations require a certain amount of parking spaces per square foot. The increase of square footage would require more parking spaces than are currently available to the church. The formula used by the city would require 148 parking spaces compared to the 81 proposed by the church. The application was denied and this lawsuit followed.
It is interesting not so much for any legal claims raised but for the factual allegations, all sworn to under oath, that paint of picture of a religion in serious freefall.
Church Membership in Atlanta, Nashville, and Buffalo
According to Paragraph 17 of the verified complaint, there are only 600 members on the church rolls in Atlanta. Of those, roughly 100 are active members. Atlanta has a population of over half a million people meaning that less than 0.0012% of its population consider themselves scientologists. Scientology has been in the city of Atlanta for over thirty years and has fewer than 1000 people to show for their presence.
As part of its submission to the planning authority, the church commissioned a traffic study by the engineering firm of Kimley-Horn to rebut the city’s contention that 148 parking spaces were needed. In Paragraph 52 of the verified complaint it alleges that Nashville most closely resembles the size and operation of the proposed Atlanta church. Based on those numbers, the church claims, under oath, it would only need 52 parking spaces. Not satisfied with that foot-bullet, they go on to allege that if the numbers were compared to the Buffalo org during “peak parking demand” they would need only 29 parking spaces (one space per 1800 feet (Paragraph 54-verified complaint). From this, we can infer that the numbers of those orgs are as bad or worse than those of Atlanta.
This is the fastest growing religion in the twentieth century!
Link to verified complaint: http://alley.ethercat.com/storage/RLUIPA-1-1.pdf
This is a verified complaint meaning that the facts have been sworn to under oath by Deborah Danos, who is listed as the president of the Church of Scientology of Georgia, Inc. Ms. Danos does not appear to be overly qualified for the job as, at least according to Kristi Wachter’s site, she has not yet attested to the state of clear.
http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/d/deborah-danos.html
Nature of the Controversy
The action filed by the church is a rather complex lawsuit involving land use and religious freedom. The church purchased the property in the city of Sandy Springs for the purpose of creating an idle org. The building was too small for their proposed use so the church filed applications for a zoning variance to allow conversion of a basement that had been used as a parking lot by the prior owners to office space and a chapel. If approved, the variance would increase the square footage from roughly 33,000 square feet to almost 44,000 square feet.
The zoning regulations require a certain amount of parking spaces per square foot. The increase of square footage would require more parking spaces than are currently available to the church. The formula used by the city would require 148 parking spaces compared to the 81 proposed by the church. The application was denied and this lawsuit followed.
It is interesting not so much for any legal claims raised but for the factual allegations, all sworn to under oath, that paint of picture of a religion in serious freefall.
Church Membership in Atlanta, Nashville, and Buffalo
According to Paragraph 17 of the verified complaint, there are only 600 members on the church rolls in Atlanta. Of those, roughly 100 are active members. Atlanta has a population of over half a million people meaning that less than 0.0012% of its population consider themselves scientologists. Scientology has been in the city of Atlanta for over thirty years and has fewer than 1000 people to show for their presence.
As part of its submission to the planning authority, the church commissioned a traffic study by the engineering firm of Kimley-Horn to rebut the city’s contention that 148 parking spaces were needed. In Paragraph 52 of the verified complaint it alleges that Nashville most closely resembles the size and operation of the proposed Atlanta church. Based on those numbers, the church claims, under oath, it would only need 52 parking spaces. Not satisfied with that foot-bullet, they go on to allege that if the numbers were compared to the Buffalo org during “peak parking demand” they would need only 29 parking spaces (one space per 1800 feet (Paragraph 54-verified complaint). From this, we can infer that the numbers of those orgs are as bad or worse than those of Atlanta.
This is the fastest growing religion in the twentieth century!
Link to verified complaint: http://alley.ethercat.com/storage/RLUIPA-1-1.pdf