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Overly Broad Zoning Ordinance Is Prior Restraint On Expressive Religious Use of Land

By Howard M. Friedman

Adhi Parasakthi Charitable, Medical, Educational and Cultural Society of North America v. Township of West Pikeland, (ED PA, June 23, 2010), involves various challenges to actions of a zoning board in a Chester County, Pennsylvania township effectively denying zoning approval to a Hindu group for construction of a temple and auxiliary building. A Pennsylvania federal district court held that "in granting an overly broad amount of discretion to its Zoning Board in deciding whether to allow expressive religious use of land within the Township, Defendant has created a prior restraint on speech in violation of Plaintiff's First Amendment rights."

On plaintiff's free exercise and RLUIPA claims, the court held that there are factual disputes which a jury must decide as to whether the Township's zoning law was applied discriminatorily. The court rejected equal protection and due process claims brought by plaintiffs. Some of plaintiffs' proposed construction violated a restrictive covenant on the property. The court held that plaintiffs lacked standing to bring a RLUIPA challenge to the Zoning Board's enforcement of the restrictive covenant, since any burden on plaintiff's free exercise of religion is caused by the restrictive covenant and not by Zoning Board action.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on July 01, 2010 (boomark / email).