Lighthouse Christian Ministries is suing the City of Wenatchee, Washington, claiming the city violated its constitutional rights by revoking its conditional use permit to operate a soup kitchen for needy persons.
Photo via social media @Lighthouse Christian Ministries
According to the federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Washington, Lighthouse — a nondenominational Christian ministry — has been serving the vulnerable population of Wenatchee by feeding them, providing daytime shelter, and serving as a hub for social services.
It was founded in 2009 to provide a soup kitchen for homeless and low-income residents. Initially it started downtown, but as demand grew, Lighthouse decided to move its operations to a larger facility. It obtained a conditional use permit after spending a million dollars to renovate a vacant warehouse in an industrial zone, including adding security lighting, cameras, and a chain-link fence.
The new location, which began operating in 2019, was also nearer to the city’s bus station where it was more accessible to those without private transportation.
In May 2025, the city revoked the conditional use permit, claiming Lighthouse had violated its conditions. In the lawsuit, Lighthouse claims the city had not given it an opportunity to address the alleged concerns before revoking the permit and forcing Lighthouse to cease its soup kitchen’s operations.
One violation the city listed was that Lighthouse parked vehicles in a parking lot it leased next door to its facility. But according to Lighthouse, the city had not given it any warning about the parking issue.
The lawsuit alleges that the real reason the city shut down the soup kitchen was because a small group of influential people were demanding it.
“The City cannot weaponize its land-use authority to extinguish a vested property right in response to political pressure. Lighthouse seeks restoration of its [conditional use permit] and damages for the significant harms it has suffered,” the lawsuit states.
Lighthouse also claims that no other conditional use permit had been revoked by the city without giving the property owner an opportunity to correct any issues.
“In revoking Lighthouse’s [conditional use permit] without warning and an opportunity to correct any deficiencies, the City treated Lighthouse differently than other [conditional use permit] holders,” the court documents state.
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It cites the example of Sage Hills Church, which it says operated with a conditional use permit. The church opened a coffee shop on its premises, but the city determined the conditional use permit did not allow a coffee shop. Instead of closing the church, the city notified the church of the alleged violation and allowed it to remedy the situation.
The lawsuit claims Lighthouse has a vested property interest in the conditional use permit, and that the city revoked that property interest without due process of law in violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Lighthouse also asserts that the city treated the ministry differently than other similarly situated social service providers, thus violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The third claim is that the city violated the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment by taking the property interest without just compensation.
The City of Wenatchee has not yet replied to the lawsuit.
The Institute for Justice (IJ), a public interest law firm that works to “end widespread abuses of government power” is representing Lighthouse in the lawsuit as part of its Zoning Justice Project, which was officially launched in May 2024. IJ has filed 10 zoning cases since the project’s launch.
IJ Attorney Christie Hebert told MinistryWatch that IJ has been working on zoning cases for years before the official launch to help “fight abusive zoning regulations that prevent people from peacefully and productively using their property,” such as for a soup kitchen to help the needy.
MinistryWatch has reported on other similar cases where municipal zoning or permitting requirements have been used to discriminate against religious ministries that include a claim brought under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
RLUIPA prohibits a local government from imposing a land use regulation in a manner that “imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise” of an institution, unless the government demonstrates that the imposition of the burden on that institution furthers “a compelling governmental interest” by the “least restrictive means” possible.
Hebert clarified that IJ does not litigate RLUIPA cases, which it told Lighthouse before accepting the case. She also said that “complying with zoning laws is not considered a substantial burden on religion, which makes zoning-related cases particularly challenging to fit into the RLUIPA framework.”
Although many of IJ’s and other litigated zoning cases are often resolved in favor of the ministries, Hebert acknowledged that it “feels as if they are getting greater pushback from local government who are restricting the ability of property owners to serve needy people.”
In this case, Hebert said, it would have cost nothing for the city to work with Lighthouse to remedy whatever concerns it had, but it costs the needy residents of Wenatchee so much — meals, access to resources, and community.
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