BALTIMORE — Baltimore County has agreed to pay $1.1 million to resolve a religious discrimination lawsuit over a county board’s denial of a church’s expansion plan.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the county and Hunt Valley Baptist Church reached the March 31 settlement after a federal judge in Baltimore upheld a ruling that the county violated a federal law that protects religious institutions from discrimination in zoning.

The church sued in 2017 after a county board denied its $5 million plan to build a 1,000-seat sanctuary with classrooms, a kitchen, gym, offices and parking for 240 cars on a 17-acre farm.