The prayers of residents near Park Avenue and 63rd Street have been answered by an appeals court, which has just ruled that a catering hall inside an historic church in the tony neighborhood isn’t cutting the mustard when it comes to the state liquor laws.
In a decision issued Thursday, the Appellate Division sided with a coalition of co-op owners who’ve been complaining since 2007 that the Third Church of Christ Scientist had been transformed into a catering operation that was disrupting their sedate blocks with huge banquets, weddings and even runway shows that drew thousands of revelers a year.
The caterer, Rose Group Park Avenue LLC, claimed that churches don’t have to comply with State Liquor Authority regulations, such as not being within 200 feet of a school or a place of worship.
As it happens, the Third Church is within 60 feet of the Central Presbyterian Church.
Supreme Court Judge Barbara Kapnick brought the Rose Group’s argument that catering was a side gig to religion so she threw out the SLA’s attempt to pull its liquor license in 2010.
The five judges on the Appellate Division saw things differently.
In a unanimous decision, they found that Rose’s lease gave it complete control over the space, designed by early 20th century architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich.
Plastic folding chairs replaced pews for the remaining 100 or congregants. Worship was limited to Wednesdays, Sundays, Christmas eve and Thanksgiving. Signs with the church’s name were covered.
“Rose Group events take priority over church group events,” the judges noted. “The provisions of the lease have permitted the building to be so altered that little remains as evidence of its use as a place of worship.”
In a biting footnote, Judge James Catterson concluded: “In my view, Delano and Aldrich are spinning in their respective graves over the conversion of their soaring house of worship masterpiece into a pedestrian catering facility.”
As a further check, the judges typed in the church’s address on Google — 583 Park Ave. — and came up with a listing for the caterer without a single mention of the church.
The volume of events, which have attracted the likes of Mayor Bloomberg and former President Bill Clinton, reached 67 in 2009.
The Third Church entered into a 20-year lease with Rose in 2006 that provided rent payments than began at $250,000 a year plus a percentage of revenues and grew to $519,732.
The Buildings Department yanked its original permit, resulting in a federal court lawsuit in the church’s favor that was upheld on appeal.
Rose’s lawyer, Victor Kovner, said he’s planning another appeal to the states highest court, the Court of Appeals, on the SLA issue.
Without a liquor license, sources said, the catering operation will probably have to shut.