Solar PanelA Massachusetts Superior Court is soon to consider the interplay of three important planning principles – historic preservation, sustainable development, and freedom of religion.  A Unitarian Universalist church is suing the Historic District Commission of the Town of Bedford (Commission) over the Commission’s denial of the church’s request to install solar panels on a building located within the Bedford Historic District, claiming that the denial infringes on its religious freedom.

The First Parish in Bedford, Unitarian Universalist (First Parish) was established in 1729 shortly after the incorporation of the Town of Bedford.  The First Parish Meetinghouse, designed in the Federalist Style by noted American architect Asher Benjamin, was constructed in 1817 and has been used by its members continuously ever since.  The church is in the Town’s Historic District.

In 2016, First Parish applied for a certificate of appropriateness to install solar panels on the Meetinghouse, but the Commission denied the proposal.  Now, the Commission is facing suit in Middlesex Superior Court over allegations that its denial of the certificate of appropriateness burdens First Parish’s free exercise of religion in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Article II of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.

First Parish alleges in its complaint that Unitarian Universalists “are called to join with others to halt practices that fuel global warming/climate change, to instigate sustainable alternatives, and to mitigate the impending effects of global warming/climate change with just and ethical responses.”  First Parish created an Energy Conservation Taskforce “to evaluate and recommend updates to the First Parish buildings, including the Meetinghouse, designed to reduce First Parish’s carbon footprint.”  The Taskforce’s work has included restoring Meetinghouse windows, installing new storm windows, and converting the Meetinghouse’s water heater from a gas burner to an electric heat pump system.  The next action item for the Taskforce is to install solar panels on the roofs of First Parish buildings to generate 75% of all First Parish energy needs from the sun.

The Commission held three public hearing sessions from April to June, 2016 to consider First Parish’s solar proposal.  First Parish states in its complaint that at the public hearings Commission members said that they would not consider any “freedom of religion” arguments when reviewing the certification of appropriateness request.  Reportedly, the Bedford Historic Preservation Commission and the Bedford Energy Task Force, among others, supported the solar plan.  The Commission, however, denied the application even though there was no public opposition.  According to First Parish, denial of the request has unreasonably infringed on its free exercise of religion.

First Parish has also filed a separate Open Meeting Law complaint, because it claims that the Commission’s chairman “arrived at the June 1, 2016 HDC hearing with a previously prepared and distributed motion to deny the Congregation’s application for appropriateness.”  The Commission’s denial allegedly repeated verbatim the motion in its entirety.  First Parish also asserts that the Commission’s denial exceeds its authority, is “legally untenable, whimsical, unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.”  First Parish’s complaint is available here.

Original photo by ricketyusSome rights reserved.

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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.

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.