A yearslong debate over whether Mercy Culture Church should be allowed to build a shelter for human trafficking survivors in Fort Worth ended with a majority of City Council members voting in favor of the church’s proposal — and over the objections of the council member who represents the area.
City Council member Jeanette Martinez, whose district includes the northeast Fort Worth Oakhurst neighborhood, voted against the church’s site plan amendment request Dec. 10. She was joined by colleagues Elizabeth Beck, Chris Nettles and Carlos Flores. Mayor Mattie Parker, Gyna Bivens, Alan Blaylock, Michael Crain, Macy Hill and Charlie Lauersdorf voted in favor of the shelter. Jared Williams was absent.
Addressing the dozens of Oakhurst neighbors and Mercy Culture congregants who filled council chambers late into Tuesday night to hear the decision, Martinez said it was her sense that council votes were “influenced by politics.”
“That is truly sad and disappointing. It is my belief that the site plan concerns of the community are valid,” Martinez said before motioning to deny the church’s request.
The vote concludes a two-year saga since The Justice Reform, a nonprofit associated with Mercy Culture, first proposed to build The Justice Residences as a shelter for human trafficking survivors. The proposed shelter will be built adjacent to the church’s Fort Worth campus located at 1701 Oakhurst Scenic Drive, in the city’s historic Oakhurst neighborhood northeast of downtown.
Heather Schott and members of her congregation lifted their hands in praise of the outcome.
“Lord, we will continue to give you all of the glory for every soul, every individual, every victim that turns reformer in this place. Lord, we say thank you,” Heather Schott said after the vote. “I know we pleased the Lord tonight.”
Since 2022, church leadership and Oakhurst residents have been at odds over iterations of the proposed multimillion-dollar building.
Mercy Culture leaders sent a letter to city officials before the Dec. 10 meeting stating the church would sue the city if the proposal was denied. Church leaders argued that The Justice Reform has a right under the First Amendment to build the shelter, calling it a church-related activity.
Parker pointed to the prospect of a lengthy legal battle as the central reason why she voted to support the proposal. She said community members were understandably concerned about how the project would affect their quality of life, but federal and state law allows churches to build on their properties without government interference.
“In the end, legal precedent demonstrates the law is on the side of Mercy Culture and all religious institutions for that matter,” Parker said. “The city most likely would lose this case and importantly cost taxpayers potentially millions of dollars in unnecessary litigation costs.”
Oakhurst residents have voiced longstanding concerns about the safety of the project, increased parking problems and suitability of the location for a high-security restoration home.
The Justice Reform’s latest iteration of the shelter — now called a religious discipleship center — would be two stories tall with a split-level basement.
One level would include the dining hall, exercise room, business offices, a kitchen and storage rooms. The upper floors would have gathering rooms, a place for storage and sleeping rooms accommodating up to a total of 115 people. A chapel would be located on the first floor, according to site plan documents.
Nettles echoed Martinez’s concerns about the political circumstances of the vote, stating that Mercy Culture representatives threatened to run candidates against council members who did not support the shelter.
Mercy Culture has been outspoken in its support for Republican politicians and conservative causes, most notably through For Liberty & Justice, a nonprofit led by pastor and State Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth. Church officials call the organization, which offers candidate trainings and other political events, a “housed vision” of Mercy Culture. Church elder Steve Penate also ran for mayor in 2021, finishing in fourth place.
Rick Herring, a former Oakhurst Neighborhood Association president and City Council candidate, said he was disappointed by the outcome — “to say the least.”
“I wholeheartedly agree with Councilman Nettles that this was political from the start, and I think most of these council members had their minds made up,” Herring said. “I feel like it was political to the extreme, and several of the council members share the same voting base that Rep. Schatzline, who’s part of this, share, and I think there was probably a lot of pressure applied.”
Crain acknowledged the “unwritten rule” that council typically follows the lead of the council member whose district is affected by the zoning case “without question.” Sometimes, cases require a different level of due diligence, he said. In making his decision, he had to deal “with facts, not feelings.”
“This is a site plan amendment. It fits within the rules,” Crain said. “We can have a conversation about whether those rules should be changed or addressed. I do hope that the neighborhood and church will work together civilly to make sure that we address the problems of property owners.”
Lawyers debate use of church-related activities
Lead pastors Landon and Heather Schott founded Mercy Culture Church in 2019. The nondenominational Christian community has since grown to draw thousands of worshipers to its flagship church in Oakhurst as well as other campuses in east Fort Worth, Dallas and Waco.
A year after Mercy Culture was planted in Fort Worth, Heather Schott started The Justice Reform with a goal of ending human trafficking in the region.
Leaders of Mercy Culture — including Schatzline, who represents the area in the state Legislature — have accused the city of discriminating against the church and delaying the progress of building the center.
The Schotts also have argued that the church has a “legal right” under the First Amendment to build the shelter and met with the mayor ahead of the Nov. 13 zoning hearing.
Kyle Fonville, an attorney representing Mercy Culture, told zoning commissioners in November that, since 2004, the church’s zoning permits “church-related activities.”
He stood in front of council members Dec. 10 to reiterate that the proposed use is in accordance with the church’s current zoning.
“The religious beliefs that are going to be propagated with this facility are we’re going to clothe, shelter, feed and, most importantly, disciple the very least of these sisters of Jesus Christ,” Fonville said. “It is not up to me to tell you what a legitimate religious belief is, and it’s not up to this (council) respectfully. The same laws that protect you to do what you want, and the religious use on your property, are the same laws that protect Mercy Culture Church.”
Alison Ashmore, an attorney representing the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association stood in front of the dais Tuesday to address the legality of the project. She said the issue isn’t about neighborhood opposition to caring for survivors of human trafficking and isn’t related to religious beliefs.
The issue is whether the shelter falls within the “church-related activity” category and whether the location can sustain a 45,000-square-foot facility.
“That structure is not compatible with the existing area and the surrounding use of the property,” Ashmore said. “It’s important to have neighborhood support and this lacks neighborhood support,” referring to hundreds of signatures in opposition to the shelter.
Supporters, opposers of the shelter voice longstanding tensions
Guitar chords echoed outside Fort Worth’s old City Hall building as supporters for The Justice Residences sang and worshipped outside.
Inside the chambers, congregants and Oakhurst residents flooded the room, taking to the podium to voice their thoughts on the project past 11 p.m.
Kaily Morrow, director of The Justice Reform and a pastor at Mercy Culture, was one of 58 people who signed up to speak, either with a group or as individuals, sharing support of The Justice Residences to council members Tuesday night.
“I promise doing nothing will not stop the injustice of human trafficking,” Morrow said. “Put yourself in the trafficker’s shoes. They will not be coming to a place where they have 24/7 security.”
She noted a petition supporting construction of the shelter earned thousands of signatures. Morrow used her time to share a video from Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn in which he voiced his support for The Justice Reform.
“I think it’s something that the faith-based community should be doing, and (they can) do it better than the government can,” Waybourn said in the video.
Those in support of the project live anywhere from 4 to 46 miles from the proposed site, according to the speaker list for the Dec. 10 meeting. Heather Schott and Fonville were two of the 23 signees who used the church’s Fort Worth campus address, 1701 Oakhurst Scenic Drive, when signing up to speak.
Sonalie Barr was one of 20 people who signed up to speak in opposition to the project and represented residents living on West Lotus Avenue, the road closest to the proposed facility. As an Oakhurst resident with a baby on the way, safety is her concern, Barr said.
She echoed several Oakhurst residents who voiced that publication of the shelter’s address puts both the survivors and the neighborhood at risk, citing that other organizations focused on helping human trafficking survivors don’t make locations of their centers public.
“If the proposed facility was being built in an appropriate location with discretion and without a public marketing campaign that jeopardizes the safety of survivors and neighbors alike, it would have my full support,” Barr said. “None of us are refuting the importance of this cause.”
Those in opposition of The Justice Residences live anywhere from 0.06 to almost 6 miles away from the proposed site, excluding Ashmore, according to the Dec. 10 speaker list.
The Justice Reform plans to start building the shelter as soon as possible, Heather Schott said, paving a way for the organization’s larger vision of partnering with other churches to build more shelters across the nation.
Government accountability reporter Cecilia Lenzen contributed reporting to this article.
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
