The nation’s highest court has agreed to hear a case involving the potential construction of a grotto at a Park Hills Church. The court’s decision could set precedent for public policy around both religious liberty and local zoning laws.
The First Liberty Institute, a Christian nonprofit organization based out of Texas, issued a press release on Thursday announcing the decision. The institute is one of the organizations, along with some private law firms, representing a nonprofit offshoot of the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, a now-defunct Catholic society that formerly ran Our Lady Lourdes Church on Amsterdam Road in Park Hills. The date of oral arguments before the Supreme Court had not yet been set, as of Thursday.
The missionaries had hoped to build a grotto, which is a small shrine meant to resemble a natural cave that typically houses a religious statue, for the Virgin Mary on the church grounds. The Park Hills Board of Adjustments granted them a variance allowing the construction in March 2021, but some neighbors later sued to stop the construction, alleging the variance was illegal under Park Hills’ zoning ordinance.
Design documents for the proposed grotto. Designs produced by Elevar. Documents provided | Kenton County Circuit Court 
Design documents for the proposed grotto. Designs produced by Elevar. Documents provided | Kenton County Circuit Court 
Design documents for the proposed grotto. Designs produced by Elevar. Documents provided | Kenton County Circuit Court 
Design documents for the proposed grotto. Designs produced by Elevar. Documents provided | Kenton County Circuit Court 
Design documents for the proposed grotto. Designs produced by Elevar. Documents provided | Kenton County Circuit Court
In June 2022, Judge Patricia Summe of the Kenton County Circuit Court ruled the board acted legally. The neighbors appealed, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled in their favor in November 2023, saying the grotto would have been an expansion of a pre-existing nonconforming use, which was prohibited under the city’s zoning ordinance. The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the appeals court’s decision in December.
Proponents of the grotto say its construction is protected under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, sometimes referred to as RLUIPA, a federal law aimed at protecting religious institutions from discriminatory zoning practices. First Liberty agreed to petition the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the missionaries’ nonprofit earlier this year. Neither the Catholic Church itself, the actual Our Lady of Lourdes parish, nor the former religious order are party to the lawsuit. Instead, the case is between the nonprofit, its political advocate allies and the Park Hills neighbors who first challenged the ruling of the city’s Board of Adjustment in 2021.
The disagreement is steeped in questions of religious practice, the nature of city governance, community identity and the effect of large institutional projects on public infrastructure. Get caught up on the years-long conflict by reading LINK nky’s inside look at the fight over the grotto below:
“How the fight over a grotto in Park Hills could have nationwide effects”
