We previously posted about the case involving the O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal Church (UDV), which brought a federal lawsuit alleging violations under RLUIPA against the Board of County Commissioners of Santa Fe County after it denied the UDV’s application to build a 11,000 square foot temple on 2.5 acres of land. You may recall that members of the community were concerned about the UDV’s practice of sipping an Amazonian tea that causes those who drink it to hallucinate. UDV Vice President Tai Bixby said that when services end at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., “the effect [of the tea] has diminished and I feel fine to drive.” The County denied the application out of concern for, among other things, the UDV’s vastly understated water budget, the effect of the Temple on the character of the neighborhood, and the potential for a neurotoxic hazard resulting from the tea surviving passage through septic tanks.”

On November 13, 2012, the UDV and the County reached a settlement agreement to resolve the lawsuit. According to the County’s press release:

“Under the settlement UDV will dismiss its pending lawsuit against [the County] and waive any claims for damages. The order previously denying the application will be withdrawn and an order approving the application will be prepared for approval by the Board in a subsequent meeting. The settlement provides a number of measures to address the concerns of residents in relation to the construction of the proposed Temple. Among them are the following: (i) the County will provide water supply for the proposed Temple from the County utility; (ii) the County will provide an advanced sewage waste treatment; (iii) the UDV will conduct all of its services inside the proposed Temple and will limit activities as described in a document attached to the settlement agreement; (iv) the UDV will construct a wall to shield the neighbors from sounds and activities at the proposed Temple (including the sounds of automobiles and automobile lights).”

Although the County’s press release is silent on the subject, the County will also pay the UDV “attorneys’ fees in an amount to be agreed to by the parties.” If the parties are unable to agree on the amount of fees to be paid, the court will decide the issue. To read the County’s statement, click here.

“Any settlement, particularly of a land use case, represents a compromise of hard fought positions by both parties, and a good settlement is one i[n] which neither party gets exactly what they want, but the matter is resolved without the risks, time and expense of further litigation,” said Santa Fe County attorney Stephen Ross.

To read the Settlement Agreement, click here.

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Photo of Evan Seeman Evan Seeman

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of…

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of an amicus curiae brief at the petition stage before the United States Supreme Court in a RLUIPA case entitled City of San Leandro v. International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Evan serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the APA’s Planning & Law Division. He also serves as the Chair of the Planning & Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, and is the former Co-Chair of its Municipal Law Section. He has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list as a Rising Star in the area of Land Use Law for 2013 and 2014. He received his B.A. in political science and Russian studies (with honors) from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was selected as the President’s Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature. Evan received his Juris Doctor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he served on the Connecticut Law Review. While in law school, he interned with the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General in the environmental department, and served as a judicial intern for the judges of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court. Following law school, Evan clerked for the Honorable F. Herbert Gruendel of the Connecticut Appellate Court.

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Photo of Dwight Merriam Dwight Merriam

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson+Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters, with a focus on defending governments in RLUIPA cases. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of…

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson+Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters, with a focus on defending governments in RLUIPA cases. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a former Director of the American Planning Association (APA), a former chair of APA’s Planning and Law Division, Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law, Chair of the Institute of Local Government Studies at the Center for American and International Law, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute National Advisory Board, a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, a Counselor of Real Estate, a member of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute, and a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

He teaches land use law at the University of Connecticut School of Law and at Vermont Law School and has published over 200 articles and eight books, including Inclusionary Zoning Moves Downtown, The Takings Issue, The Complete Guide to Zoning, and Eminent Domain Use and Abuse: Kelo in Context. He is the senior co-author of the leading casebook on land use law, Planning and Control of Land Development (Eighth Edition). Dwight has written and spoken widely on how to avoid RLUIPA claims and how to successfully defend against them in court. He is currently writing a book on the subject, RLUIPA DEFENSE, for the American Bar Association.

Dwight has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list in the area of Land Use Law since 2006, is one of the Top 50 Connecticut Super Lawyers in Connecticut, and is one of the Top 100 New England Super Lawyers (Super Lawyers is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.). He received his B.A. (cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts, his Masters of Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, where he was the graduation speaker in 2011, and his J.D. from Yale. He is a featured speaker at many land use seminars, and presents monthly audio land use seminars for the International Municipal Lawyers Association. Dwight has been cited in the national press from The New York Times to People magazine and has appeared on NBC’s The Today Show, MSNBC and public television.

Dwight also had a career in the Navy, serving for three tours in Vietnam aboard ship, then returning to be the Senior Advisor of the Naval ROTC Unit at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he taught Defense Administration and Military Management as an Assistant Professor in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum in Defense Administration and Military Management. He left active duty after seven years to attend law school, but continued on for 24 more years as a reserve Surface Warfare Officer with two major commands, including that of the reserve commanding officer of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. He retired as a Captain in 2009 after 31 years of service.

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