Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/06/2018

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Zoning Bulletin October 25, 2018 I Volume 12 I Issue 20 terms provision of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act Citation: Tree of Life Christian Schools v. City of Upper Arlington, Ohio, 2018 WL 4443591 (6th Cir. 2018) The Sixth Circuit has jurisdiction over Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. SIXTH CIRCUIT (OHIO) (09/18/18)--This case addressed the issue of whether a zoning ordinance that prohibited secular and religious school uses within an office zoning district violated the "equal terms" provision of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act ("RLUIPA") (42 U.S.C.A. § 2000cc(b)(1)) by treating a proposed religious school "less favorably than comparable nonreligious uses." In addressing that issue, the court addressed how RLUIPA's equal terms provision should be applied, including what elements must be proven to establish a prima facie case (i.e., a legally required rebuttable presumption) under RLUIPA's equal terms provision. More specifically, the court addressed the issue of what type of comparison Congress intended of religious and nonreligious land uses under RLUIPA's equal terms provision. The Background/Facts: In 2001, the City of Upper Arlington, Ohio (the "City"), adopted a Master Plan to guide its zoning decisions. A goal of the Master Plan was to increase the City's revenue by attracting business development. To further that goal, the City adopted a Unified Develop- ment Ordinance (the "Development Ordinance"). The Development Ordinance restricted the use of areas zoned as office -and -research -center district ("office district") to specific uses that were primarily commercial. Under the Development Ordinance, the operation of schools —both secu- lar and religious —was a prohibited use within the office district. Places of worship were allowed as conditional uses, which meant they were permit- ted in the office district with approval from the City's Board of Zoning and. Planning (the "Board"). Despite the prohibition on school uses in the City's office district, in 2010, Tree of Life Christian Schools ("Tree of Life") purchased a large of- fice building within the office district for the purpose of operating a private Christian school. Tree of Life filed a conditional -use application with the City. The Board denied the application, finding that "the proposed primary use of the property as a private school does not constitute a `place of wor- ship, church' . . . and [was] therefore not a conditional use in the [office district]." The City Council upheld the Board's decision. After the City rejected its conditional -use application, Tree of Life filed a lawsuit against the City. Among other things, Tree of Life argued that the Development Ordinance violated the "equal terms" provision of RLUIPA, 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000cc(b)(1). RLUIPA's equal terms provision prohibits governments from "impos[ing] or implement[ing] a land use regulation in a manner that treats a religious assembly or institution on less than equal terms with a nonreligious assembly or institution." (42 U.S.C.A. © 2018 Thomson Reuters 3