Faced with a potentially long and expensive court battle, the Scottsdale City Council on Monday reversed its twoyear-old decision to deny a local church a permit to build a religious school.

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“This is one of those ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ kind of cases,” said Councilwoman Betty Drake.

The council voted 5-2 to rescind a 2005 decision that rejected SonRise Community Church’s application to build a religious school alongside its existing church on a 9-acre parcel at 29505 N. Scottsdale Road. By the same margin, the council also agreed to a settlement in the lawsuit the church filed against the city over the school permit denial.

The settlement allows the church to build a school for students from preschool through eighth grade, but limits enrollment to 200. It also divides the originally proposed schoolhouse into two smaller buildings, one containing classrooms and offices and the other a 330-seat basketball gym and assembly area; requires the staggering of student dropoff times; and mandates that students be dropped off in the interior of the property.

Sherry Scott, assistant city attorney, said if the council had rejected the settlement and gone to trial, the potential cost of a loss in court could have reached into the millions of dollars.

“The outcome of the litigation is not clear,” Scott said.

Mayor Mary Manross defended the settlement as a compromise.

“I think your neighborhood is beautiful and I think it’s going to be great after,” Manross told neighbors.

Vice Mayor Tony Nelssen and Councilman Bob Littlefield cast the dissenting votes, preferring to fight it out in court. Nelssen said granting the permit amounts to a preference for religious institutions at the expense of neighbor- hoods. “That principle is offensive and contrary to the overarching principle of equality under the law,” Nelssen said. Littlefield said the council’s commitment to protecting neighborhoods should be paramount.

“Is the principle that caused us to deny this in the first place worth fighting for? I say, ‘Yes, it is,’” he said. “What we’re saying tonight is, ‘Well, maybe that principle wasn’t so important after all.’” Audience members filled the chairs and lined the walls of the council chamber for the special meeting, in which the SonRise settlement was the only thing on the agenda. Many of the church’s neighbors, who have alleged the addition of the school will bring heavy traffic and reduce property values, wore stickers saying, “Don’t settle.”

James Stress, who said his home abuts the church, said no one from SonRise approached him about the proposed school, and that the lawsuit was the church’s attempt to bully the council. “I don’t buy this stuff that these people are good community citizens,” he said. “They’re not.”

But Pastor David Friend of the Dream Center church said he supports the agreement. “The church is here to bless the community,” Friend said. “Allowing a church to offer a Christian school is a great service to the community.”

Since the school site is zoned for singlefamily homes, the church had to apply for a city permit to establish a school there. SonRise representatives have argued the council’s denial of the permit amounted to an abridgement of the church’s rights to free speech, religion, assembly and due process. City officials denied violating the church’s constitutional rights.