Liberty Baptist Church, a Kansas church founded in 1947 with a congregation of about 15 members (Church), is suing the Board of County Commissioners of Crawford County, Kansas over the denial of its application for a conditional use permit to operate its property as a church.

Since 2013, the Church has met and worshipped in the home of its pastor in Pittsburg (the most populous city in Crawford County and in southeastern Kansas) (see here).  It soon began a search for new property outside Pittsburg, but within the County.  It located a 2.8 parcel that met its needs.  The parcel is situated in the agricultural zone, but under the zoning code it is too small to put to agricultural use (10 acre minimum requirement).

While the County has seven zoning districts, religious assembly uses are not permitted as of right in any of them, but are only permitted as conditional land uses.  In September 2013, while the Church was under contract to purchase the parcel, it submitted an application for a “conditional land use” with the Crawford County Regional Planning and Zoning Commission.  Although the Planning and Zoning Board voted to send a recommendation of approval, the Board of County Commissioners subsequently denied the application for the following reasons:

  • Proposed use not in the same general character of the neighborhood which is residential and agricultural;
  • Concern about safety due to narrow road and sightlines at the entrance of the property;
  • Residents’ concerns about activity on church ground when property is not in use;
  • Concern from neighboring landowners about the viability of the church which would lead to an abandoned structure with no upkeep or maintenance.

On December 29, 2014, a state district court upheld the County’s denial as reasonable.  The district court did not consider claims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).

On November 1, 2013, the Church acquired title to the 2.8-acreparcel and filed another application for a “conditional land use” on January 19, 2015.  The Planning and Zoning Board again recommended approval, but the Board of County Commissioners again denied the application on the following grounds:

  • Proposed structure and use not in the same general character of the neighborhood which is residential and agricultural;
  • Concern about safety of the roadway and the entrance to the property.

In the current lawsuit, the Church alleges that “the County is interfering with the Church’s religious mission and growth and threatens the existence of the church.”  It also asserts that its “members have been humiliated and have endured mental anguish and suffering as a result of these events.”

The Church complains that the County’s zoning code and its actions violate RLUIPA’s total exclusion and unreasonable limits and substantial burden provisions.  It also challenges as a violation of the Free Exercise Clause the County’s Zoning Regulations and conditional use permit application process, and asserts violations of the Kansas Constitution and the Kansas Preservation of Religious Freedom Act (KPRFA).  The Church seeks as relief declarations that the County’s zoning code and its actions violate RLUIPA, the Free Exercise Clause, and state law, and seeks injunctive relief to enjoin the County from preventing it from using its property as a church.

The Complaint is available here.  For local coverage, 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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