In the RLUIPA Round-Up post, we noted that the City of Sterling Heights, Michigan, is facing a federal lawsuit following its denial of the American Islamic Community Center’s (Center) zoning application to build a 20,500 square foot mosque.  The Center began searching for property it could purchase and construct a mosque, especially in the City where 80% of the Center’s members live.  The Center found a site along Fifteen Mile Road in the City consisting of five separate, contiguous parcels.  Currently, the Center is leasing the property with an option to purchase so long as it obtains a zoning permit to build a mosque.  But, according to the Center, the required zoning process – which ultimately resulted in denial of the application – was riddled with overt anti-Muslim animus and racism, including the following:

  • One member of the public speaking at the public hearing to say, “I wish they’d go to Dearborn or somewhere else, just not this area … I don’t want to be near people like this. This is not humanity.  My point is that it’s not right to live with people like this … this is not acceptable at all.  These people … they are scaring the public.”
  • This same member of the public allegedly held up an image of a woman in a burqa, with text stating “scaring and disgusting,” and urged the City to outlaw burqas in the City.
  • The planner contacted the now retired City police chief to see if “this imam and mosque [have] been completely vetted.” In response, the police chief contacted the FBI to “see if this mosk [sic] or Sayed Najah Al-Hussaini and Jaafar Chelab is on their radar.”
  • Another member of the public during the public hearing allegedly stated that “all Muslims who live in America are on food stamps. They are killers.”

Some of this may directly involve actions by public officials and as such may be actionable under the Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).  Some is public comment and typically not actionable under RLUIPA, however, the Second Circuit ruled just a few years ago that discriminatory comments made by the public can, in some situations, support violations of RLUIPA.

Hundreds of individuals packed the room during the public hearing sessions to consider the application.  A large crowd of what appeared to be hundreds of individuals gathered outside and reportedly began chanting “no more mosque.”  Once the application was denied, the crowd that had gathered outside joyously erupted.  The crowd’s reaction to the denial can be seen in this news clip.

The Center has sued in federal court, claiming violations of RLUIPA, the U.S. Constitution, and Michigan law.  Specifically, the Center asserts the City’s zoning regulations violate RLUIPA’s equal terms provision on their face, since religious uses are allowed only by special land use approval whereas analogous secular assembly uses (municipal libraries, museums, recreational facilities, and administrative offices) are allowed as of right in the same residential zone.  The Center also claims the City treated it worse than other secular assembly uses that applied for and received zoning approval, and that the City’s denial substantially burdens its free exercise of religion as it cannot use the property for religious assembly including worshiping together as one spiritual family.

The Center’s complaint in American Islamic Community Center v. City of Sterling Heights is 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.

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.