On July 22, 2014, Cornerstone Church by the Bay (Church) and Laguna Madre Christian Academy (Academy) sued the Town of Bayview, Texas (Town) under the Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act (TRFRA), and the U.S. and Texas constitutions over a zoning ordinance it claims prohibits it from operating a church and religious school on property it owns in the Town’s Single-Family Dwelling District.

Plaintiffs allege the following in their Complaint.  Previously, the Church and the Academy paid to rent property in Laguna Vista, Texas.  They then acquired property in the Single-Family zone and sought to operate a church and religious school there, but soon became aware that such uses were prohibited in this zone.  The property was formerly used as a community center with a gymnasium, a swimming pool, meeting facilities, and office space.  Plaintiffs allege that following several communications with the Town and its officials, they applied to amend the zoning ordinance to permit churches and schools as allowable uses in the zone.  They asserted that the zoning ordinance violated RLUIPA and TRFRA, and were told by Defendants that the best course of action would be to submit a draft of a new zoning ordinance that would remedy the alleged violations.  Plaintiffs submitted a proposed draft ordinance, but the Town took no action on it and, instead, rejected the zoning amendment request.  On June 26, 2014, Defendants sent a letter to Plaintiffs advising them of the decision to reject the zoning amendment, informing them that they are not allowed to operate a church or religious school on the property, and the Church and the Academy would face legal action if they did so.

Plaintiffs claim that the Town treats it worse than other secular assembly uses because while the zoning ordinance prohibits religious uses from the subject zone, it allows other secular assembly uses – golf courses, farms, truck gardens, orchards, green houses and nurseries.  They also claim they have been substantially burdened in their religious exercise because they are prohibited from operating on the property as a result of the zoning ordinance, and would face enforcement action if they do so.  Additional claims include violations of RLUIPA’s nondiscrimination provision for the purposeful discrimination against religious institutions and RLUIPA’s unreasonable limitations provision because the zoning ordinance “substantially and unreasonably limited the ability of religious institutions from operating within Bayview, and is both unwarranted by any legitimate government interest and unreasonable.” 

To review the rest of Plaintiffs’ claims in Cornerstone Church by the Bay v. Town of Bayview, Texas (SD TX 2014), you can view the Complaint here.  The Town’s zoning ordinance and zoning map can be accessed here and here.  The Liberty Institute has issued a press release which available 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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