RLUIPA.org
Becket Fund joins lawsuit against Castle Hills, Texas
Charging that the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills has waged a "campaign against places of worship" over a period of many years, Castle Hills First Baptist Church today filed an amended petition with a Texas District Court charging violations of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions and two new laws, one federal and one state statute. The action marks the entry into the case of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a national public interest law firm that specializes in First Amendment law and actions brought under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ("RLUIPA"). They join local counsel Stephen P. Allison from the firm of Haynes and Boone.
The Castle Hills First Baptist Church case originated several years ago, when the city rejected the church's application for a permit to convert 5.5 acres of vacant land immediately adjacent to the church into a parking lot to accommodate its growing membership. The city council later also rejected a mediated settlement and three other applications that would have allowed the parking lots with various conditions attached. As a result, church members must park instead across a major highway in nearby commercial parking areas and risk life and limb amidst heavy traffic while the much safer vacant property adjacent to the church sits idle. The city had demanded that the church provide and pay for reports related to the aesthetics, drainage, air quality and traffic impact of the new parking lots. When the church met all the requirements, the city council simply ignored them and denied the permit.
The petition also charges that the city refused even to accept an application for a permit to finish and occupy the fourth floor of one of its buildings, which is badly needed for religious fellowship and education activities. The large empty area has sat idle for several years while children in the church school crowd into cramped quarters on the floors below. Such actions are typical of a decades-long pattern in which the city has used its land use laws to discourage religious institutions from locating in Castle Hills, the petition says.
The amended petition charges the city with constitutional violations of the church's rights of free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of association, equal protection and due process. It also states that the city violated RLUIPA by discriminating against the church on the basis of religion, and that it violated the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act by placing "a substantial burden" on the church's religious exercise.