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DOHERTY RUMBLE & BUTLER PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION ISSUES City of Lake Elmo April 20, 1999 Page 3 The Zonis Code provides no allowable sites for a new church as a permitted or conditional use. The Lake Elmo Zoning Code does not allow churches in any zone other than the PF zone. (The general business zone does allow religious "service/office" uses. However, it is apparent from the context and the lack of any parking requirement or other performance standards related to worship spaces that this is not intended to allow churches.) The PF Zone is a "floating zone", meaning it exists only for previously approved or existing uses. Of the 26 existing sites in the City zoned Public Facilities and Public, as identified by City staff, 25 are presently occupied by existing uses. The only exception is the Apostolic Bible Church site, which was rezoned for the Apostolic Bible Church. Development of this church, however, was stopped by the City's moratorium on public facility uses. The new ordinance will make the Apostolic Bible Church site a nonconforming site, and will render it useless for a church, as documented in the exhibits to this letter. Therefore, upon adoption of the PF-Ordinance there will be no sites in the City of Lake Elmo where a church can be built as a permitted or conditional use. The only way to build a church would be to request rezoning to the PF-Zone, a legislative determination by the City Council which requires a 4/5 vote. If rezoning can be obtained, the church would then have to obtain a conditional use permit. Requiring legislative approval to establish any religious use of land in the City of Lake Elmo is an unconstitutional prior restraint on and interference with the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, assembly and the exercise of religion; and the freedom of conscience clause in the State Constitution . The Zoning Code must allow the opportunity to establish religious uses without the legislative approval of the City Council, as a permitted or, in limited circumstances where closer review is justifiable, conditional use. It is not acceptable for the existence of any future church in Lake Elmo to fall to the sole discretion of the City Council. 2. The 15 acre maximum lot size unconstitutionally infringes on the exercise of religion and is unsupported by any rational basis. The proposed PF-Ordinance includes a maximum lot size of 15 acres. The record indicates that 15 acres was selected because this is all the land necessary for a City maintenance garage. Other reasons expressed to the churches for the maximum lot size include the desire to prohibit big churches and to minimize the amount of tax-exempt land in the City. MumoG 588883.1