Texas Lawsuit Challenges Water Quality Law Under RLUIPA

Today's Austin (TX) American-Statesman reports on an interesting suit filed last month in federal district court in Austin. Hope in the City, an Austin, Texas Christian church, is challenging the city's use of a law enacted to protect water quality in the Barton Springs watershed to prevent the church from paving over additional parts of its property for use as a parking lot. At issue is whether the city's water quality concerns underlying its "Save Our Springs" (SOS) ordinance are compelling enough to overcome a challenge under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Also at issue is whether the parking lot development is protected under a "grandfather clause" in the SOS ordinance.