Immanuel Baptist Church v. City of Chi., 17 C 00932

344 F.Supp.3d 978

IMMANUEL BAPTIST CHURCH, Plaintiff,

v.CITY OF CHICAGO, Defendant.

No. 17 C 00932

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

Signed September 26, 2018

John William Mauck, Sorin Adrian Leahu, Mauck & Baker, LLC, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff.

Andrew S. Mine, Ellen Wight McLaughlin, Justin Tresnowski, Oscar Pina, City of Chicago Department of Law, Chicago, IL, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

John J. Tharp, Jr., United States District Judge

The Court's prior opinion in this case addressed the question "when is a church like a library?" Now the Court must address a more narrow question: "When is this church like that library?" The answer might be: "when it comes to parking." Immanuel Baptist Church's original Complaint against the City of Chicago failed because it did not adequately allege that the City's parking requirements for religious and secular assemblies are facially unequal in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act ("RLUIPA"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc (2000). In its Amended Complaint, the Church argues that even if the requirements are equal on their face, they are applied unequally. The City moved to dismiss the Amended Complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. Because the Church adequately identified a secular comparator with similar parking needs and alleged that the City treats the comparator more favorably, the Court denies the City's motion.

BACKGROUND

I. Procedural History

The Church filed its first Complaint in February 2017, alleging that the City's parking regulations facially violate RLUIPA's equal-terms provision and deny the Church equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. See Immanuel Baptist Church v. City of Chicago , 283 F.Supp.3d 670, 670 (N.D. Ill. 2017). The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The Court granted the City's motion for summary judgment on the RLUIPA claim because the Church failed to present evidence to support its facial challenge. Id. at 681. The Court also granted the City's motion for summary judgment on the equal protection claim, but granted the Church leave to file an amended complaint asserting an as-applied RLUIPA claim.¹ Id. The Church filed its Amended Complaint in October 2017 asserting an as-applied RLUIPA claim and again asserting an equal protection claim.² The City moved to dismiss the Amended Complaint under Rule 12(b)(6). Def.'s Mot. to Dismiss, ECF No. 45. For the reasons discussed below, the Court denies the motion.

II. Facts

Immanuel Baptist Church meets at 1443 W. Roosevelt Road (the "Property") in Chicago, Illinois. The Property, which the Church has rented since 2011, is approximately 3,900 square feet and consists of a worship center and classrooms. Am. Compl. ¶¶ 20, 21. The Property does not offer off-street parking, but street parking is widely available in the surrounding area and many of the Church's members choose to walk or take public transit. Id. at ¶ 25. The Church facilitates a variety of ministries and religious exercises for its 60-person congregation at the Property, including weekly worship assemblies, preaching, pastoral counseling, prayer meetings, singing and musical performances, baptisms, weddings, communion, bible studies, service projects, evangelism, and financial giving. Id. at ¶ 48.

In 2016, the Church reached an agreement to purchase the Property from its owner, but the Church's lender required a determination regarding legal parking requirements before the deal could close. Id. at ¶ 31. The City subsequently informed the Church that, while religious assemblies are a permitted use at the Property, the Church could not be established without meeting parking requirements listed in the Chicago Zoning Ordinance, section 17-10-0207.

Id. at ¶¶ 61, 62. That ordinance requires religious assemblies to have one off-street parking space for every eight seats in the main auditorium. Id. at Ex. K.

The Church has pursued several avenues in attempting to meet the parking requirements. One possibility was to lease a nearby unused parking lot owned by the Chicago Housing Authority ("CHA"). The CHA indicated that due to regulations, any lease could be for a maximum of 364 days at a time. Id. at ¶ 35. Patrick Murphey, the City's Assistant Commissioner, told the Church that a 364-day lease would be insufficient and added that the City must "determine if a religious assembly use is something it wants to promote on a commercial corridor such as Roosevelt Road." Id. at ¶ 36. Because the Church has been unable to work out parking arrangements, its lender has not provided the financing needed to purchase the Property. Id. at ¶¶ 43, 45.

The Church alleges that the City applies its parking requirements unequally and points to two comparators in support of its claim. The first, the Rudy Lozano Branch of the Chicago Public Library, is located a few blocks from the Church at 1805 S Loomis Street. The 18,000 square foot library has two meeting rooms available to the public, one with a capacity for 60 people and another with a capacity for 20 people. Id. at ¶¶ 67, 74. The rooms have held assemblies such as public forums, community meetings, and political meetings. Id. at ¶ 74. The library also holds a number of regular assemblages throughout the week, including "Teen Tuesday," "Super-Duper Playtime," "Superhero Story Time," and "Super Experiments." Id. at ¶ 75. In addition, the library offers general seating for approximately 150 patrons. Id. at ¶ 73. According to the City's zoning code, a library of this size should provide 14 off-street parking spots.³ The Lozano Library currently provides none. Id. at ¶¶ 68, 69.

The Church also identifies as a second comparator the Taylor Street Library, a recently approved construction project located in the same zoning district as the Church. The project will consist of the 14,000 square foot library as well as 73 residential units. The City's zoning ordinances require that a project of this size include at least 83 parking spaces, but the project is slated to have only 26 in total. Id. at ¶ 78-81.⁴ The City has allegedly denied the Church's request for similar exceptions to be made to its own parking requirements. Id. at ¶ 83.

DISCUSSION

To survive a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), "a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ " Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). A claim has "facial plausibility" where the complaint's factual content "allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Id. When considering a motion to dismiss, the Court construes all inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Zemeckis v. Global Credit & Collection Corp. , 679 F.3d 632, 634 (7th Cir. 2012). The Court finds that the Church has adequately identified a comparator and pleaded facts illustrating that the comparator was treated more favorably, as required by RLUIPA. Accordingly, the Court denies the City's motion to dismiss.

The Church argues that the City has violated the "equal-terms" provision of RLUIPA by providing libraries with ample exceptions to the City's parking requirements, while refusing to provide such exceptions for the Church. Am. Compl. ¶ 86. RLUIPA's equal-terms provision bars a government from imposing or implementing "a land use regulation in a manner that treats a religious assembly or institution on less than equal terms with a nonreligious assembly or institution." 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc(b)(1). The statute is violated "whenever religious land uses are treated worse than comparable nonreligious ones, whether or not the discrimination imposes a substantial burden on the religious uses." Digrugilliers v. Consol. City of Indianapolis , 506 F.3d 612, 616 (7th Cir. 2007) (citing Vision Church, United Methodist v. Vill. of Long Grove , 468 F.3d 975, 1002-03 (7th Cir. 2006) ); Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana of Boca Raton, Inc. v. Broward Cty. , 450 F.3d 1295, 1308 (11th Cir. 2006) ; Midrash Sephardi, Inc. v. Town of Surfside , 366 F.3d 1214, 1229-31 (11th Cir. 2004).

In River of Life Kingdom Ministries v. Village of Hazel Crest, Illinois , the Seventh Circuit held that an equal-terms violation exists if a religious land use is treated less favorably than a secular land use that is similarly situated as to the relevant zoning criterion. 611 F.3d 367, 370-372 (7th Cir. 2010) (en banc); see also Affordable Recovery Hous. v. City of Blue Island , No. 12-cv-4241, 2016 WL 5171765, at *14 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 21, 2016) ("According to the Seventh Circuit, a regulation will violate the ‘equal terms’ provision of RLUIPA only if it treats religious assemblies or institutions less well than secular assemblies or institutions that are similarly situated as to the accepted zoning criteria.") (citing River of Life , 611 F.3d 367 ). A plaintiff need not demonstrate unequal treatment in all respects between two institutions, but only that they are "similarly situated in all relevant respects." Vision Church , 468 F.3d at 1003. For example, "if a church and a community center, though different in many respects, do not differ with respect to any accepted zoning criterion, then an ordinance that allows one and forbids the other denies equality and violates the equal-terms provision." River of Life , 611 F.3d at 371.

As explained in the Court's prior opinion, an equal-terms violation may occur in one of three ways. Immanuel Baptist Church, 283 F.Supp.3d at 676. First, a statute can facially differentiate between religious and nonreligious assemblies or institutions. Second, a facially neutral statute can be "gerrymandered" to place a burden solely on religious, as opposed to nonreligious, assemblies or institutions. Third, a truly neutral statute can be selectively enforced against religious, as opposed to...