Christianity versus land use planning

October 9th, 2006

It’s not all Bush’s fault (though most of it is). This one belongs to Clinton, our centrist ex-President.

While a county victory might provide other local governments with a template for defending against similar challenges, some lawyers fear that if Boulder County, with its long history of careful land-use planning and its environmentally demanding voters, cannot successfully argue that preserving open space is a “compelling public interest,” few local governments could.

“Religious institutions have realized that land-use authorities are vulnerable to the threat of litigation,” David Evan Hughes, the deputy county attorney, asserted in the county’s court filings. Without greater clarity from the courts, he continued, the new law’s reach “will expand to the point where religious institutions are effectively dictating their own land-use regulations.”

Wait, I thought Republicans were against affirmative action? Oh, I guess it is okay so long as the affirmative action is for the local Pentecostal church (and other places where you can speak in tongues) rather than minorities. Oh, and I thought Republicans were also against “trial lawyers” and all of those lawsuits that they bring? Well, apparently not if it is your local church suing to pave over open space.

Related posts: Damascus voters ruin Damascus, Goodbye to the Adirondacks (and other forests), Land use planning under orchestrated attack via initiative system