NOISY SILENT MEDITATION?

Had a great Civil Liberties class on RLUIPA today. My favorite RLUIPA case so far is Pine Hill Zendo Inc., Angela Mortensen and John M. Mortensen v. Town of Bedford Zoning Board of Appeals. Look at the Beckett Fund's page on the case here (we used these pages for class material). Talk about sympathetic litigants. From the Beckett Fund page:

In 1998, [John] Mortensen was certified a Dharma teacher, the equivalent of becoming a Zen master in Japan. He and Angela began to search for a place for him to teach, but they were unable to find a location they could afford. Angela Mortensen then asked the town planning department what might be required for them to use their home for religious observances, and were told to simply go ahead, that they didn't need a permit. Pine Hill Zendo was formed, and for several years religious observances took place in the house without incident.

In the spring of 2001, however, a neighbor complained to the Town Planning Board, and the Mortensens were asked to apply for a special use permit that would all them to use the home as a "church or house of worship," although neither of those terms is defined anywhere in the Town zoning ordinance. The Zoning Board of Appeals held a hearing on the application on September 5, 2001, and a group of neighbors appeared in opposition. None claimed that they had been harmed or even inconvenienced by Pine Hill Zendo during the previous several years. One resident even testified that other neighbors told her they had never seen or heard anything, and didn't even realize the Zendo existed. Opponents simply speculated that traffic and parking problems might develop.

The ZBA rejected the application for a special use permit, citing "issues related to traffic and on-street parking," although on-street parking is permitted in the area at any time except for overnight hours during the winter months. And, incongruously, the Board cited concern over noise, despite the fact that the Zendo's primary activity is silent meditation.

(See also Kathryn Cramer's comments here.)

Now I'm generally worried about attempts to weaken zoning through laws like RLUIPA. But that doesn't mean that I think that all zoning board decisions should be upheld. I think that Pine Hill Zendo would probably have some other avenues for litigation: equal protection? Maybe. Don't know enough about the law in this area. How likely would it be that there are other silent meditation groups who are similarly situated?

At any rate, the case was settled, with the ZBA getting mild restrictions and Pine Hill Zendo getting its attorney's fees paid for, to the tune of $30,000. I'll bet someone on the town's side realized that this case was not a winner.