09-26-2012 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

NORTHWEST ASSOCIATED CONSULTANTS, INC. 4800 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 202, Golden Valley, MN 55422 Telephone: 763.231 .2555 Facsimile: 763.231 .2561 planners@nacplanning.com MEMORANDUM TO: Little Canada Planning Commission FROM: Stephen Grittman DATE: September 7, 2012 RE: Little Canada — Zoning Amendment — Definition of Assembly FILE NO: 758.10 — 12.03 Background and Analysis In recent months, there have been conflicts raised over the proposed use of commercial or industrial facilities by religious groups. Cities have had concerns with this issue for varied reasons, including economic development and job creation, tax base, and potential for incompatible patterns of use in commercial or industrial areas where traffic and other public facilities may not have been constructed with such uses in mind. The issue is complicated by the adoption, in 2000, of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalize Persons Act (RLUIPA). This federal statute essentially states that no city may treat a religious use differently than a non - religious use when considering land use issues, that is, if two uses are the same, the fact that one may be religious in nature cannot be used to prohibit it or place conditions not common to the non - religious use. RLUIPA can be a problem to interpret, and is particularly difficult to predict since in the 8th US Circuit Court District (which includes Minnesota), no cases have been decided to provide guidance as to where the limits of legitimate municipal regulation lie. A common interpretation of RLUIPA impacts would be that since churches have large places of assembly, anywhere the City allows other uses that have large assemblies must also allow churches — the typical example used would be movie theaters. Many communities — reacting primarily to national planning and zoning publications — have adopted a "hands off" approach to RLUIPA issues. In this treatment, religious assemblies have been treated as allowed in any location that other public assemblies are allowed, Indeed, some communities have adopted amendments to their zoning ordinances allowing "places of public assembly" as a land use category. 2