SEATTLE — A Seattle suburb violated the state constitution by using a temporary ban on development to block a church's effort to set up a tent city for the homeless, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

The high court's July 16 unanimous decision reversed lower court rulings that had sided with the city of Woodinville's refusal to consider the Northshore United Church of Christ's land-use permit application for Tent City 4 in a largely residential area in 2006.

Woodinville officials violated a constitutional provision that guarantees "absolute freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment, belief and worship," Justice James M. Johnson wrote in City of Woodinville v. Northshore United Church of Christ.

Six other justices signed Johnson's ruling, which reversed findings by King County Superior Court Judge Charles W. Mertel and a state Court of Appeals panel. The majority faulted the church on some procedural grounds but nonetheless found the city mainly in the wrong.

The other two justices would have gone farther. Justice Richard B. Sanders wrote in a concurring opinion, and Justice Tom Chambers agreed, that the majority held an "errant and dangerous assumption that the government may constitutionally be in the business of prior licensing or permitting religious exercise any more than it can license journalists."

Neither group of justices ruled on whether federal religious freedoms were violated in the case, which was closely watched by civil rights advocates and churches.

Lawyers disagreed over the impact of the decision.

Robert Aloysius Hyde, a lawyer for the church, said he was happy that, "essentially, the church was vindicated," but added that the ruling left unclear the question of whether churches must seek permits for homeless encampments.

"They may not if a substantial burden is placed on the religious practice," Hyde said.

"The municipalities have to act very carefully," he said. "There has to be a very careful examination of the permitting process for each church."

Woodinville City Attorney Greg Alan Rubstello said he was disappointed but believed the decision left room for "reasonable conditions on these types of permits."

"I'm not sure that it has really changed the rules that much," Rubstello said.

Since 1990, self-governing tent cities of about 60 to 100 homeless people have been organized by the Seattle Housing and Resource Effort and Women's Housing, Equality, and Enhancement League, circulating about every three months among church grounds and other sites volunteered by property owners.

Such encampments have popped up with increasing frequency and numbers in a number of U.S. cities, including Fresno, Calif.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio. In places like Seattle and Portland, Ore., homeless-advocacy groups have paired with nonprofits or faith-based groups to manage the tent cities as outdoor shelters.

In some cases, plans to establish the encampments have drawn complaints from neighbors, code-enforcement officials and other local officials.

The Woodinville case dates to 2004, when officials there allowed a tent city on municipal land earmarked for a park. At the time, SHARE/WHEEL and Northshore UCC signed a contract promising not establish any future tent city without first obtaining a valid temporary-use permit.

Two years later, the church agreed to host a tent city, but Woodinville officials refused to process the permit application, citing a previously adopted six-month moratorium on land-use applications in the largely residential area pending a study of the environmental effects of new development. A church request to the City Council also was rejected.

The city attempted to extend the moratorium beyond its legitimate purpose of assuring that development would not damage the environment, Johnson wrote.

"Therefore, the city's action constituted a violation" of the state constitution's freedom of religion clause, he concluded.

Supporters of the church included the American Civil Liberties Union, a synagogue and six churches or religious organizations, including the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, Church Council of Greater Seattle and regional associations of American Baptists, Evangelical Lutherans and United Churches of Christ.