Mainline churches were constructed with large crowds in mind. You are very clearly not aware of the decline they’ve gone through. Ours has a huge sanctuary built in 3 levels + choir loft + the Dias. There’s no taxes on the place and it’s all paid for with repair costs the biggest expense. On Easter Sunday and Christmas, the sanctuary first floor, with no open spaces between families, would be 1/2 occupiedIt is fair to exclude stock space and office space, just as you should exclude the office and utility space in the church. For Costco, this changes very little. The vast majority of their space is in the main shopping area.
But you don’t exclude inventory space in the main room. That volume is still part of the main airflow, and that volume still helps the aerosols disperse. Similarly, you should not exclude the pulpit or the chancel in the sanctuary. It’s part of the airflow in the main room.
Measured by people per square foot or cubic foot in the main room, Costco is far less dense than almost any church. Any church with 150 square feet per parishioner is probably very close to closing. (that would be a living room worth of space around every couple attending church. Eerily quiet.)
Main point is that fire occupancy is the wrong way to think of airborne disease risk. Cubic feet per person or square feet per person make more sense. The court’s standard is a-scientific nonsense.
this is not true of course for Mormon or evangelical churches but it’s their call whether the ministers want to offer multiple services. It is true of many Catholic Churches using sanctuaries built before 1960 when the churches began to go into decline.
the point is the standard whether church or store is required to be neutral. Either way my own church by fire code or cubic feet per person, knowing 1/2 the congregation (most over 50) would not show up, would easily pass muster. And yes services in the sanctuary on a holiday weekend would be eerily quiet as they would in many mainline churches. It’s why we normally worship in the chapel which is usually crowded and would not pass muster under this test