Court Says Now Scientology Church Can Pursue Discrimination In Zoning Claim

In Church of Scientology of Georgia v. City of Sandy Springs, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19087 (ND GA, Feb. 10. 2012), a Georgia federal district court granted a motion for reconsideration of its earlier zoning decision (see prior posting). The earlier decision held that triable issues of fact remain on plaintiff's First Amendment claims and its RLUIPA claim that the city's action posed a substantial burden on its religious exercise, but dismissed its RLUIPA discrimination, equal terms and exclusion claims. In its new opinion, the court held that it now believes a question of fact exists as to whether Sandy Springs discriminated against the Church of Scientology on the basis of its religious denomination when, in granting conditional approval of its rezoning application, it refused to allow expansion of the church's existing building based on a lack of sufficient on-site parking. In an amended opinion, the court said:

Based on the entirety of the evidence in the record as more clearly demonstrated by Plaintiff in its motion for reconsideration, in conjunction with new, unchallenged evidence provided in the briefing on ripeness that Plaintiff originally sought a parking variance but was informed by a member of the City's planning staff that no variance was needed because the Church met the City's minimum parking requirement, the Court finds that Plaintiff has now sufficiently demonstrated evidence from which a possible inference of discrimination could be made.