RLUIPA.org
Franklin Park zoning laws violate federal religious land use law
Franklin Park (Illinois) zoning laws that completely exclude places of worship in commercial districts while permitting such other assembly uses as meeting halls, clubs and lodges, banquet halls and theaters are illegal and unconstitutional, a complaint filed today in U.S. District Court (PDF format, 115K) in Chicago charges. The lawsuit was filed by Calvary Chapel O'Hare, a non-denominational church that has been forbidden from converting and using a bowling alley located in the C-3 zoning district of Franklin Park. Calvary Chapel O'Hare is represented by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C., and local attorney Timothy P. Dwyer.
Calvary Chapel, which currently occupies cramped, inadequate space in a former real estate office on Franklin Avenue, began discussions last fall with the owner of a bowling alley on Grand Avenue regarding a potential purchase of the property. The Grand Bowl property offers some 19,000 square feet of space (compared with the church's present quarters of only 2500 square feet), and is the only such space available in Franklin Park. It has been rented out many times for such gatherings as weddings, baptisms, graduation and birthday parties and banquets.
In late March, Calvary Chapel was informed that a church could not use the building, since the village zoning law does not permit places of worship even as a conditional use in the C-3 district. At a closed session of the Franklin Park Village Council on April 1, 2002, council members decided not to allow Calvary Chapel to use the bowling alley.
The complaint filed today charges that the Franklin Park zoning law violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ("RLUIPA"), which prohibits local zoning laws from treating churches on less than equal terms than nonreligious assembly uses or institutions, and a number of other provisions of the law as well.
The Becket Fund won the first case decided under RLUIPA in December, 2000, and has since successfully represented churches in similar cases throughout the United States. It successfully defended the constitutionality of RLUIPA in a case decided yesterday by a U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.