In City of Jordan v. Church of St. John the Baptist of Jordan, No. CV-07-24976 (Apr. 14, 2009), the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that a state law requiring the consent of a church’s governing board before its land can be taken for road or street purposes requires consent before a city can take property for sidewalks and traffic signals.
Minn. Stat. § 315.42 (2008) provides in relevant part:
No roads or streets shall be laid through the property without the consent of the corporation’s governing board.
The city intended to place a new sidewalk and traffic signal lights on the church’s property and could not negotiate a purchase. The issue was whether the sidewalk and signal constituted “roads and streets” under the statute. The appellate court noted that the statute had never been interpreted since its enactment in 1881, but that the Minnesota Supreme Court in a case decided roughly contemporaneously with the statute, held that “sidewalk” was ordinarily understood to be part of a “street.” The Jordan court concluded:
And because a religious corporation’s land cannot be taken for streetpurposes without consent of the corporation’s governing board, thechurch’s land cannot be taken for sidewalk purposes without its consent.
. . .
For purposes of Minn. Stat. § 315.42 (2008), sidewalks are part of streets. Also, because a city is to place traffic-control devices on a highway or street, the prohibition in Minn. Stat. § 315.42 (2008) on using the land of religious corporations for road or street purposes without the consent of the corporation’s governing board precludes the use of the church’s land for sidewalk and signal light purposes without consent of the church’s governing board.
Slip op. at 7, 10.