The Newspaper of the San Francisco Bay Chapter
May - June 2007
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Federal jury upholds Alameda County Urban Growth Boundary
A federal jury has upheld Alameda County's Urban Growth Boundary.
Measure D, passed by voters in November 2000, was drafted by the Sierra Club to establish a county UGB and impose stringent restrictions on rural development outside the line.
In 1997, Redwood Christian Schools, a system of private schools in the Castro Valley area, applied to build a new junior/senior-high school outside the UGB at the mouth of Palomares Canyon in unincorporated east Castro Valley. The proposed school would have been much larger than permitted by Measure D.
After an intense series of public hearings, the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council, the county Planning Commission, and ultimately the Board of Supervisors all denied Redwood Christian's conditional-use permit on grounds that the project was inconsistent with zoning and violated the intent of the county General Plan to maintain the area for agriculture and open space.
Redwood Christian sued the county (as well as individual supervisors personally) in federal district court, claiming that the decision violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), which was designed to protect religious entities from discriminatory land-use decisions. Redwood Christian was represented by the Becket Fund, a conservative Washington, DC, law firm that attempts to place Christian religious values above all others.
After years of legal maneuvering, a trial was held in late February before a 10-member federal jury. The jury found unanimously that Alameda County did not violate Redwood Christian's free exercise of religion and that its decision was not based on discriminatory motives. Denial of the use permit was upheld.
Alameda County counsel Richard Winnie commented, "A jury verdict is much more powerful than the ruling of a judge - it says that 10 objective people have heard two weeks of evidence and made a decision. And basically, they have said that this case is dead, dead, dead."
Alameda County supervisors and its lawyers deserve thanks for implementing the will of the voters and staunchly defending its position in court. Becket Fund lawyers have vowed to appeal.
© 2007 San Francisco Sierra Club Yodeler