A federal court in New York has dismissed religious discrimination and related claims alleged by an evangelical Christian church (the “Church”) against the Town of Colonie, New York, its agencies and officials (the “Town”), in connection with conditions of approval imposed by the Town on the Church.  The Church sought zoning approval to construct a 36,000 square foot facility to accommodate its membership and expand its religious worship and educational services.  For a detailed discussion of the facts, read our 2014 post here.

The Church challenged the following conditions of approval imposed by the Town that limited the Church’s use of the property:

  • Service times shall be a minimum of two hours apart from start to start
  • Sunday service times shall be limited to up to three services without additional Planning Board review
  • Weekday service times shall start no earlier than 6:30 PM

The court dismissed the Church’s RLUIPA, constitutional, and state law claims as unripe for failure to obtain a final zoning decision.  The Church had submitted an application to amend the conditions, but abandoned the application before obtaining a final decision.  The Church asserted that continuing the zoning process would be futile; the court rejected this argument because the Church requested and received an opportunity to seek an amendment of the zoning conditions that the Church later decided not to pursue.  The fact that the Church had been put through the zoning process for 20 months did not establish that seeking further zoning relief would be futile.  Likewise, the Church’s conclusory allegations of bias and hostility, which the Church contended meant that any application would result in denial, did not excuse the Church’s failure to obtain a final zoning decision.

The decision in Life Covenant Church, Inc. v. Town of Colonie (Northern District of New York, 2017) 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.