Cornerstone Claims Dover Zoning Regs Violate Religious Freedom

By NewsNHJ, NH Journal

Is the City of Dover trying to strangle religious freedom, or simply enforcing standard zoning regulations?

That’s the heart of the dispute between the city and The Prayer Room at Dover, a startup worship space trying to get established. According to state records, a group of Dover-area Christians, including Katharine Eaton, Erica Cole, and Jonathan Ebba, founded the ministry in 2025.

Eaton explained The Prayer Room’s vision in a 2025 YouTube video, saying it would be a nondenominational space where Christians of various stripes could gather in joined prayer. Eaton said she felt called to create this space in downtown Dover after years of being part of a ministry that opened prayer tents at public gatherings. Her friends shared that vision, and they began building the organization.

“We knew that God was calling us to start this prayer room,” Eaton said.

The Prayer Room was set to open its doors this summer in a commercial storefront in a building on Central Avenue when Dover officials halted the plans. According to Shannon McGinley, executive director of Cornerstone Action, Dover is illegally requiring The Prayer Room to jump through bureaucratic hoops simply because it is a Christian group.

“Right now, a city could violate your church’s constitutional rights, have you evicted from your meeting space, and walk away without consequence. That is not justice,” McGinley said.

The Prayer Room, represented by Cornerstone, filed a lawsuit against the city this week alleging that Dover is violating RSA 674:76. Signed by Gov. Chris Sununu in 2022, the law says zoning ordinances and site plan review regulations may not prohibit, regulate, or restrict land or structures primarily used for religious purposes, subject to limited exceptions.

But Dover’s city attorney, Joshua Wyatt, has a different take on the law and how it applies to The Prayer Room. Wyatt declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by NHJournal last week. However, his Oct. 6 letter to Cornerstone attorney Ian Huyett laid out the city’s side of the dispute.

The city argues that the law’s protections do not apply to The Prayer Room’s leased space because it is in a multi-use building, according to Wyatt.

“[T]here is neither textual support in that statute nor case law support for your assertion that your client’s leased portion of the multi-use building is what frames the analysis,” Wyatt wrote. “Textually, the statute’s use of the word ‘primarily’ intrinsically confirms that, in situations where there are multiple uses occurring, it is the dominant use that is used for purposes of analyzing RSA 674:76 in a given situation.”

The Prayer Room’s space is in Dover’s Central Business District. The city says its zoning process requires a conditional use permit, or CUP, to authorize uses not listed in the district’s zoning table. Because The Prayer Room’s space is inside a larger building with multiple uses, the city says the building’s dominant use—not the leased space’s use—determines whether it is primarily used for religious purposes.

“Textually, the statute’s use of the word ‘primarily’ intrinsically confirms that, in situations where there are multiple uses occurring, it is the dominant use that is used for purposes of analyzing RSA 674:76 in a given situation,” Wyatt wrote.

Wyatt’s letter says the city would assist The Prayer Room through the permitting process so it could open and fulfill its mission.

“Staff indicated they would assist your client with completing a CUP application and would support the application before the Planning Board. I also indicated the CUP in my view is fairly straightforward and, while I cannot guarantee an outcome, I expected it very likely the Planning Board would grant The Prayer Room a CUP with a single meeting,” Wyatt wrote.

But rather than obtain the permit, which has a $250 filing fee, The Prayer Room and Cornerstone are going to court. In its statement on the lawsuit, Cornerstone claims that Dover, like many cities and towns in New Hampshire, is weaponizing its zoning regulations to target a Christian group.

“Municipalities continue to subject religious uses of land to discretionary permitting requirements that they do not impose upon comparable secular uses, seizing upon every collateral argument they can think of to avoid following the law,” the statement claims. “Dover is demanding the congregation obtains a conditional use permit before it may use its space—for no reason other than that it is a place of worship.”

But Wyatt told Huyett that the city is not singling out The Prayer Room; it is treating it like any other organization under the law by requiring a CUP.

“I will clarify for you, once again, that filing for a CUP is a procedural way of enabling a specific land use in this zoning district, and applies neutrally and equally to all religious and non-religious uses not already listed in this district’s zoning table,” Wyatt wrote.

The complaint names The Prayer Room as the plaintiff, and the state law applies to both land and structures primarily used for religious purposes. Dover’s 2026 CUP application lists a $250 fee.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.