Ark Encounter

Ark Encounter is a planned religious theme park scheduled to open in Grant County, Kentucky on July 7, 2016. The centerpiece of the park will be a full-scale replica of Noah's Ark. Ark Encounter will be operated by Answers in Genesis, the Christian apologetics ministry that operates the Creation Museum.

In December 2010, Answers in Genesis announced a project to build an 'Ark Encounter' theme park around a full-scale interpretation of Noah's Ark, at a proposed site in Grant County, Kentucky. Steve Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, stated that he was in favour of tax incentives for the project, and investors submitted an application for sales tax reimbursements under the state's new tourism development initiative.

Beshear's announcement of potential incentives for the park cited a feasibility study predicting 1.6 million visitors in the first year. However, it was later revealed that neither Beshear, nor state officials, had seen the Ark Encounter, LLC-commissioned study.^[1] Following policy, the Tourism Development and Finance Authority commissioned its own study that was paid for by Ark Encounter, LLC.^[2] Consultant Rob Hunden, of Hunden Strategic Partners, said the project is expected to draw nearly 1.4 million visitors a year, and may require the state to widen the Interstate 75 interchange at Williamstown, Kentucky, at an additional cost to the state of about $11 million.^[3]

In May 2011, the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority voted unanimously to grant sales tax rebates of up to 25 percent of project capital costs over a 10-year period up to $43.1 million for the $172 million project that's otherwise being financed by a group of private investors.^[2][3] Ark Encounter will not receive any money up front, but will get a rebate of the sales tax collected after the first year and every year after that for ten years.^[2] Groundbreaking for the $172 million Ark Encounter project was intended to start in August 2011, at the Grant County site because of approval for tax rebates.^[2]

Organizations concerned with the separation of church and state are divided on the question of subsidies for the project. The Americans United for Separation of Church and State state that "The government should not be giving tax incentives for religious projects. Religion should be supported by voluntary donations, not the government." The American Civil Liberties Union state "Courts have found that giving such tax exemptions on a nondiscriminatory basis does not violate the establishment clause, even when the tax exemption goes to a religious purpose."^[4]

In an editorial in late December 2010, The Courier-Journal questioned the potential cost to the state government of the project, including highway upgrades and the likelihood that increases to hospitality industry infrastructure would seek further subsidies.^[5]

Groundbreaking was supposed to start in 2011, but in 2012 after two previous push backs, it was announced construction would start in 2014.^[6] AiG cited fundraising problems and declining interest in the Creation Museum as reasons for the delay.^[6]

On May 1, 2014, the Creation Museum hosted a special Ark Encounter event called the "Hammer and Peg Ceremony" in the Legacy Hall of the Creation Museum. The private ceremony celebrated the launching of the ark project. Attendees included several leaders of the ark project along with state and local officials.^[7] Funding is in place for the Ark Encounter construction to begin. Funding for the project was spurred on by the Bill Nye–Ken Ham debate.^[8] The Troyer Group, the construction management team, will begin the bidding process for different facets of the project.^[9]

In December 2014, the Kentucky tourism secretary announced that up to $18 million in tax rebates to Answers in Genesis, supporting the development of the Ark Encounter, that had received preliminary approval in July would be withdrawn, because the facility was to be used for religious indoctrination instead of as a tourist attraction, and because of complaints of hiring discrimination.^[10] In response to the Kentucky tourism secretary withdrawing the tourism incentives, Ark Encounter LLC, the developer of the attraction, filed a religious discrimination lawsuit in February 2015. In the lawsuit, entitled Ark Encounter LLC et al. vs. Bob Stewart et al., Ark Encounter alleges the state of Kentucky violated the group's First Amendment free speech rights by denying an $18 million tax incentive.^[11]

University of Kentucky law professor Scott Bauries said the religious freedom law allows the plaintiffs to argue that the state discriminated against them "[b]ecause the state of Kentucky seeks to hold them to a higher standard than what the ordinary anti-discrimination laws would hold them to—and because it doesn't seek to do that with any non-religious employers—that it's discriminating against them based on their religion." Under federal and state anti-discrimination laws, religious employers are allowed to hire "coreligionists" if doing so furthers the religious purpose of the organization.^[12]

In May 2015, a blog was posted to the Ark Encounter website, announcing "wood to arrive all summer".^[13] According to this post, construction continues on the project, with over a million board feet to be delivered throughout the summer of 2015.

On November 12, 2015, AiG announced that the Ark Encounter would open on July 7, 2016, a date (7/7) chosen to correspond with Genesis 7:7: "And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood."^[14]

On January 25, 2016, Federal Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled in favor of AiG, ruling that Kentucky officials violated builders' First Amendment protections, and ordering the state to commence processing the application for the tax rebate incentives that would become available once the Ark Encounter opens.^[15][16]

Category:Grant County, Kentucky