Central Oregon Landwatch v. Deschutes County

Under RLUIPA, a county may not exclude churches from a Wildlife Area overlay zone while allowing nonreligious assemblies and institutions.

Petitioner appeals a county decision approving an application for an administrative determination and site plan review to authorize weddings and other events associated with a religious use. Intervenors own the subject property, which is zoned Exclusive Farm Use (EFU), located in a deer winter range, and subject to the standards of the county’s Wildlife Area (WA) overlay zone. In July 2017, intervenors submitted an application for an administrative determination and site plan review, seeking county land use approval to conduct weddings on a portion of the subject property. In June 2018, the county approved intervenors’ application, concluding that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) prohibited the county from applying provisions of the Deschutes County Code (DCC) that would require denying the application. This appeal followed.

DCC 18.88.040(B) prohibits a “[c]hurch” as a conditional use in portions of the WA overlay zone that are designated as deer winter range. RLUIPA provides that no government shall impose a land use regulation in a manner that treats a religious institutions or assembly on less than equal terms with a nonreligious institution or assembly. In their fourth assignment of error, petitioner argues the county erred in concluding that DCC 18.88.040(B) violates the “equal terms” provision of RLUIPA because all uses similarly situated to churches are equally prohibited in the WA overlay zone. Because there is no legally significant distinction between the prohibited religious use (i.e., religious weddings) and the allowed non-religious uses (i.e., secular weddings at wineries) in the WA overlay zone, LUBA agrees with the county. The fourth assignment of error is therefore denied and the county’s decision is AFFIRMED.