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DOHERTY RUMBLE & BUTLER PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION City of Lake Elmo April 20, 1999 Page 6 is unclear. It grants no exceptions from the performance standards of the ordinance. Therefore, although an existing church might be "conforming", if it violates any of the performance standards of the new PF-Ordinance, which all of the existing church sites do, it cannot expand in any way. The ordinance must allow some reasonable expansion of existing public facility uses, including churches. 6. The ordinance is undue restrictive with respect to allowable building materials and does not blow signage at all. The proposed PF-Ordinance restricts churches to the use of certain building materials, with no explanation as to the specific limitations. There are numerous building materials available which would have no negative impact, would blend into the surroundings of Lake Elmo, and would be more affordable for churches than the materials required in the proposed ordinance. The ordinance also does not allow any signage. Every use in the City needs to be able to identify itself with appropriate signage. The ordinance must be amended to allow a reasonable amount of signage to identify public uses. ANALYSIS I. United States Constitution The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states in relevant part, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." The "exercise of religion" often involves not only belief and profession, but the performance of (or abstention from) physical 4cts: for example, assembling with others for a worship service... Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 875 (1990). In Smith, the Supreme Court reaffirmed it's long held position that when a free exercise claim is coupled with another constitutional claim arising out of the same law, strict scrutiny of the law should be applied. Such a claim is known as a "hybrid rights" claim. In this case, the proposed PF-Ordinance will make it impossible to build a place of worship in the City of Lake Elmo. This violates the church members' rights to freely exercise their religion, as well as their rights to freely assemble and speak. An individual's freedom to speak, to worship, and to petition the government for the redress of grievances can not be vigorously protected from interference by the State if a correlative freedom to engage in group effort towards those ends is not also guaranteed. Roberts v United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 622 (1984). A fundamental tenet of most religions is the practice of congregating for worship. By regulating the size of churches, and thus the number of individuals who can participate in worship, Lake Elmo regulates worship in its MumoG 588883.1