Florida Chabad Excluded From Shopping Plaza Wins RLUIPA Claim

A Florida federal district court ruled on Friday that Cooper City, Florida violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act by excluding houses of worship from commercial areas. Yesterday's Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the court ruled in favor of Chabad of Nova, holding that zoning rules permitting vocational schools, day care centers and movie theaters, but not religious congregations, in shopping plazas are discriminatory because they treat religious assemblies on less than equal terms with nonreligious assemblies. The city had argued in part that the term "public assembly" in RLUIPA is vague. City Commissioner Elliot Kleiman said: "The intent was never to discriminate against houses of worship but to make the best use of shopping areas for the public." Chabad, however, argued that the city was attempting to protect its tax base. (See prior related posting.) Still remaining to be decided are a number of othe counts in Chabad's complaint, including a request for an award of damages.