Religion and Land Use

[Douglas Laycock]

        The Saxer article is Zoning Away First Amendment Rights, 53 Wash. U.J.
Urb. & Contemp. L. 1 (1998).

        There is also Sarah J. Galen Rous, Why Free Exercise Jurisprudence in
Relation to Zoning Restrictions Remains Unsettled After Boerne v. Flores,
53 SMU L. Rev. 305 (1999).

        I have a piece on State RFRAs and Land Use Regulation coming out in a
symposium in Cal-Davis.   I was seriously late with the manuscript, and I
was told they were going to the printer and absolutely had to have to it or
I would be kicked out of the symposium.  That was in May.  Maybe they were
bluffing to deal with my own delinquency.  I assume it will come out soon,
in law review standard time.

At 01:10 PM 10/20/1999 -0700, you wrote:
>I believe my colleague Shelley Saxer has written on the subject. Her e mail
>address is ssaxer at pepperdine.edu.
>
>Anecdotally, I once spoke with the person in my church denomination who was
>responsible for starting new churches. He told me that in some cities in
>California it was nearly impossible to find land that was zoned or that
>could be rezoned for church use. I believe the local officials often cite
>loss of tax revenues as a basis for opposing approval of new churches and
>other places of worship. If that is the real reason then presumably they
>would oppose other nonprofit (and nontaxable) uses as well; I don't know
>whether that is the case.
>
>Mark S. Scarberry
>Pepperdine University School of Law
>mscarber at pepperdine.edu
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Alexander Dushku [mailto:ADUSHKU at KMCLAW.COM]
>Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 12:36 PM
>To: RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu
>Subject: Religion and Land Use
>
>
>Does anyone know of a case or article arguing that local land use officials
>at times undervalue free exercise interests, especially when determining
>where or whether a church can be built within a municipality?
>


Douglas Laycock
University of Texas Law School
727 E. Dean Keeton St.
Austin, TX  78705
        512-232-1341 (phone)
        512-471-6988 (fax)
        dlaycock at mail.law.utexas.edu