Zoning
Religiously
Eager to End Years of Litigation, Town Officials Ready to
Give Variances to Shul
By
Evan Berkowitz
With
an old legal opponent planning
to build a synagogue on 96th Street in Surfside, the town of
Surfside's
administration is attempting to craft a new ordinance to set
zoning policy for religious institutions and places of
public assembly.
At its
Feb. 13 meeting The Surfside Town Commission unanimously
passed a “friendly amendment” in support of a soon to be
written ordinance that will designate three areas of the
municipality as appropriate for religious use, those being
96th St., Harding Ave. and Collins Avenue. Susan Trevarthen,
a Weiss Serota Helfman attorney contracted with Surfside,
said the new ordinance should be ready for the Town
Commission by May.
According to the Surfside Gazette, a publication run
by town officials, approximately eight years ago two
Orthodox synagogues, Young Israel and Midrash Sephardi sued
the town regarding a zoning ordinance, which allowed private
clubs and lodges to operate in their business district, but
excluded religious institutions from the same area. After
several years of litigation and the municipality trying to
take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, Surfside lost the
case, based on a statute called the Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which Congress
passed in 2000.
The
town only recently settled the case and was forced by the
court to pay both synagogues’ legal fees where the town
agreed to pay Young Israel’s lawyers approximately $150,000
and Midrash’s $ 645,000. The Surfside Gazette
estimated that Surfside’s own lawyer’s fees were in excess
of $100,000 for each year of the case.
Mayor
Charles Burkett and the new town commission, elected nearly a
year ago, campaigned adamantly against expensive legal
actions that were carried out under previous governments led
by mayors Paul Novack and Tim Will. During that time the
town refused to allow the two shuls to open up in an office
building at 9592 Harding Avenue, arguing that it wasn’t
zoned for religious purposes.
The
way the town had handled this in the past was determined to
be discriminatory and what we have in front of us is our
attorney’s best effort to correct that problem and make sure
that that never happens again,” said Burkett.
Vice
Mayor Howard Weinberg, a professional attorney, compared
Surfside’s reputation regarding civil rights for religious
institutions to what Birmingham, Alabama’s was for
African-Americans in the 1960s. “Anything that we do in
regards to religious freedom and houses of worship will be
looked at under the microscope,” he said.
Legally keeping houses of worship out of residential areas
is a top concern. Town Attorney Lynn M. Dannheisser, also
affiliated with Weiss Serota Helfman, said that gatherings
that require the use of more than 11 parking spaces would be
considered improper by town code. The three sites to be
designated for religious use are commercial thoroughfares,
she added.
Some
Surfside residents believe that the town should not
compromise further. “It’s a poorly conceived idea to allow
anything on 96th Street but open space or residential
homes,” Joe Graubart, the former chair of the town’s
Planning and Zoning Board told the SunPost. He thinks
96th Street is already too busy a road and said that if
higher impact development is considered the Florida
Department of Transportation should be consulted.
“They’re constantly putting the cart in front of the horse,”
Graubart said of the current commission, who feared that the
new zoning could “create a slippery slope” where in the
future builders may knock down houses on Carlyle and Dickens
avenues because they face 96th Street.
Weinberg said Surfside could do little to prevent a temple
from being built on the lot. He said the town would never be
able to be victorious in court over Young Israel and if the
synagogue were denied the right to build they would likely
sue.
According to Town Manager W.D. Higginbotham, zoning attorney
Stan Price would be representing the synagogue in any future
legal actions with the town. Price could not be reached for
comment by deadline.
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