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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Clinton Signs Religious Zoning Law
WASHINGTON, DC -- US President Bill Clinton signed a bill protecting
religions from discrimination under local zoning laws into law on Friday.
The bill addresses the concerns of many religions, including the LDS Church,
that local governments are using zoning laws to keep them from building new
churches or expanding existing ones.
The bill was introduced in the US Senate by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah),
who is an LDS Church member, after he learned that 50% of challenges by
churches to zoning laws were from religions that represent less than 10% of
the population.
The new law addresses a major concern for the LDS Church, which has suffered
from multiple challenges to building Temples and meetinghouses. Possibly the
most well-known of the challenges was in Forrest Hills, Tennesee, where the
Church was trying to build its Nashville Temple. In the face of continuing
zoning challenges, the Church moved the proposed building to another
Nashville suburb, Franklin, where it constructed a smaller Temple. Other
examples can be seen in Boston, White Plains, New York and even Big Sky,
Montana [See
Mormon News' Coverage of Zoning Challenges to LDS Building Projects .
Local officials have protested the new law in testimony before the US
Congress, suggesting that the law will make the zoning process more
difficult and open the towns to "frivolous" lawsuits by Churches. The also
claim that the law unconstitutionally favors religion.
Because of these claims, the law may actually increase the 10-year-long
fight over religious liberty in the US.
Source:
Clinton signs law to bolster religious freedom in land use
Detroit MI News (Los Angeles Times) 23Sep00 T1
By David G. Savage and Richard Simon: Los Angeles Times
See also:
Mormon News' Coverage of Zoning Challenges to LDS Building Projects .
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