Thursday, June 24, 2004
West Linn denial of permit to church upheld
When the Church of Latter Day Saints proposed a new meeting house in Portland suburb West Linn, the city denied the permit saying it would cause too much traffic and that there were inadequate buffers between the church and the adjacent residential area. The church appealed to Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals, which sided with the church.
But West Linn appealed to Oregon's Court of Appeals, which upheld the city's ruling. The court cited a federal court that said land-use regulations of churches were okay so long as they did not render religious exercise "effectively impracticable." I guess not being able to have a church doesn't mean you can't exercise your religion.
According to an earlier story, this is the first time a city has challenged the Religious Land Use Act, which Congress passed in 2000 and which was supposed to protect churches from such land-use regulation.
Sorry for the delay; the Oregon Court of Appeals reached its decision last March, but this is the first I heard of it. A similar debate is going on in Albany, Oregon. I wonder how much of this is due to prejudice against the Latter Day Saints; if the Unitarians wanted to build a church, would neighbors oppose it? (In my experience, Unitarians are considerably more raucus neighbors than Mormons.)
But West Linn appealed to Oregon's Court of Appeals, which upheld the city's ruling. The court cited a federal court that said land-use regulations of churches were okay so long as they did not render religious exercise "effectively impracticable." I guess not being able to have a church doesn't mean you can't exercise your religion.
According to an earlier story, this is the first time a city has challenged the Religious Land Use Act, which Congress passed in 2000 and which was supposed to protect churches from such land-use regulation.
Sorry for the delay; the Oregon Court of Appeals reached its decision last March, but this is the first I heard of it. A similar debate is going on in Albany, Oregon. I wonder how much of this is due to prejudice against the Latter Day Saints; if the Unitarians wanted to build a church, would neighbors oppose it? (In my experience, Unitarians are considerably more raucus neighbors than Mormons.)
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