Important principles of religious liberty were ignored when a local government quashed plans by a Seventh-day Adventist church in California for an on-site radio ministry, say local church leaders and legal experts.

The Solano County Planning Commission voted April 4 to deny an application by Vacaville Adventist Church to house its radio ministry in an existing building on church property, which is already approved for use as a caretaker facility.

In a hearing attended by more than 200 people, supporters argued that the radio station, KASK-91.5 FM, is a vital part of the ministry of the church, and would have a positive impact on the community.

“Government officials have an obligation to do good for the community,” said Brad Newton, government affairs director for the Adventist Church in the region. “The Planning Commission violated this public trust. There was no public benefit achieved by this denial, only the blocking of the positive influence the station would bring.”

The church’s attorney, Fred Blum, told the commissioners that the lone legal issue was whether the “impact of the radio ministry on the community would be so negative that the county had a compelling justification to deny the permit.”

Church pastor Stan Caylor responded to the county’s suggestion that the ministry locate elsewhere. He said that it was a small church with very limited resources. “If we could have gone elsewhere, we would have done so long ago, and been on the air by now,” he said.

Testifying in favor of the radio ministry were a local realtor, a neighbor, several area pastors, Alan Brownstein, professor of constitutional law at University of California Davis Law School, and Brad Dacus, director of the Pacific Justice Institute. The California Catholic Conference submitted a lengthy letter in support of the church.

Options are being weighed as to the next step, say supporters of the radio station, and a complaint has already been filed in Federal Court.