Sunday, April 28, 2013

Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, Inc. v. City of New Berlin case brief

Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, Inc. v. City of New Berlin case brief summary
396 F.3d 895

FACTS: Plaintiff church sued defendant city, alleging that a decision denying its application to rezone a parcel of land from residential to institutional with a planned unit development overlay violated 42 U.S.C.S. § 2000cc(a)(1) of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, 42 U.S.C.S. § 2000cc et seq. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin granted the city summary judgment. The church appealed.

ANALYSIS: The district court erred in granting the city summary judgment because the church had no viable alternative to rezoning. Specifically, a conditional use permit had a one-year deadline that could not be extended and the mayor's suggested planned unit development alternative was simply a delay tactic as it achieved the same result as the church's proposal. The denial of the application imposed a substantial burden on the church because it required the church to either search around for other parcels of land or continue filing applications with the city, both of which would have caused delay, uncertainty, and expense. Since the facts were not in dispute, the appellate court did not order a trial. Instead, it reversed the district court's decision and left open the possibility for the parties to negotiate to eliminate any possibility that the land might have been put to a nonreligious institutional use without the city's consent.

CONCLUSION: The district court's decision was reversed. The case was remanded with instructions to grant the relief requested by the church but to stay its order for 90 days to give the city a chance to negotiate with the church such arrangements as may have been necessary to eliminate any possibility that the land might have been put to a nonreligious institutional use without the city's consent.


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