Court strikes down limit on churches

County ordered to eliminate 'ludicrous' requirement
Posted: September 29, 2005

A Georgia trial court ruled against county officials who refused to issue a permit to a church.

The court said Douglas County officials acted in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act when they refused to issue a special land use permit to the Victory Family Life Church.

Officials denied the church's permit application because it did not meet the county's three-acre requirement for houses of worship.
But Joel Oster, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which helped fund the church's case, called it an illegal ordinance that "only served to restrict churches and did not further any legitimate county interest."

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