The fate of 22 stained glass windows in an historic North Side church remains up in the air.The Syracuse Planning Commission on Monday again delayed a decision on whether the windows can be removed from the vacant Holy Trinity Church building on Park Street.
The building is a locally protected historic site and the windows can’t be removed without the commission’s OK.
The commission’s lawyer requested more time to research the building owner’s legal argument in favor of removing the windows.
The parish that owns the building wants the windows to be used in a Catholic church building in Louisiana. Andrew Leja, lawyer for the parish, argued it has the legal right to make what is a religious decision, in keeping with the Catholic church’s mission, to allow the windows to be used in another Catholic church.
The Catholic Diocese of Syracuse closed Holy Trinity in 2010 and merged the parish with that of St. John the Baptist. The merged parish says it has a deal to sell the vacant building to the Louisiana parish contingent on the removal of the windows.
The Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board in September denied the request to remove the windows and the parish appealed to the planning commission.
Leja said the preservation board’s decision goes against the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.
The act says without a compelling reason a government cannot implement a land-use regulation that imposes a substantial burden on a church’s exercise of religion, Leja said.
The parish also argues that removing the windows is the best way to preserve them. It says it cannot afford to maintain the deteriorating Holy Trinity building, which puts the windows at risk.
Preservationists argue that without the windows, the building will lose its historic value and its best shot for productive reuse.
They want the parish to hold off on the windows and to look harder for ways to use the building that protects its history.
Former Holy Trinity parishioners have also argued against removal of the windows.