Earlier this year, we reported on the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) against the City of St. Anthony Village, Minnesota (“City”) over the City’s denial of Abu Haraira Islamic Center’s (“Center”) conditional use permit to develop a 15,000 square foot religious and cultural center in the basement of a property located in the light industrial zone (prior post here).  Less than four months after the DOJ sued the City under RLUIPA, the parties have settled.  The City will allow the Center, whose members are mostly Somali immigrants, to develop its religious and cultural center while paying $200,000 in attorneys’ fees, $50,000 of which will come from the City as a co-pay and deductible, with the League of Minnesota Cities paying the remaining $150,000 from its trust fund.  According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, “[t]he agreement also indicates that elected leaders, managers, and certain City employees will participate in educational training about requirements of RLUIPA.  The City of St. Anthony Village will also make RLUIPA information available to the public through its website and will report periodically to the Justice Department.”  The City Council will vote on the proposed settlement at its December 23, 2014 meeting.

According to the Complaint in United States of America v. City of St. Anthony Village, Minnesota (D. Minn. 2014), the City’s denial of the conditional use permit substantially burdened the Center’s religious exercise because the Center was left with limited worship site options.  In addition, the DOJ claimed that other sites in South Minneapolis could not adequately accommodate the Center’s religious exercise because these locations were too small and would require the members to pray in hallways or entryways.  The DOJ also alleged that the City’s zoning code violated RLUIPA’s equal terms provision by treating religious uses worse than secular assembly and institutional uses.

The City’s mayor, Jerry Faust, praised the settlement as a “compromise” and stated, “We welcome the Islamic Center to the City of St. Anthony.”  Faust added, “Sometimes, you just need to take a look at it and say, what is best for the community, how do we move forward, how do we commence the healing, and how do we make it better for all parties involved to the best of our ability?”  At a conference to announce the settlement, Center Imam Sheikh Ahmed Burale thanked Faust and said, “[W]e want to forgive one another.  No hard feelings.”  Mayor Faust responded with the same and added, “You will be accepted by this community.”

Daniel P. Dalton, a lawyer who frequently represents religious organizations in RLUIPA actions, called the deal a “reasonable compromise,” but a victory for the Justice Department, and stated the $200,000 payment and training program was “a little heavy-handed.”  Municipal officials who want to learn more about RLUIPA, may wish to visit RLUIPA Defense’s Resources Page.

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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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