With a unanimous vote, Kingston Borough adopted a revised version of its 2023 zoning law that the Department of Justice (DOJ) found violated requirements for religious land use.
“We have made several very modest revisions, but important revisions nonetheless to the proposed amendments,” Attorney Stephen Rhodes said. He represents the borough.
The DOJ sued Kingston in February over the 2023 zoning ordinance, saying it violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act or RLUIPA. The department said the ordinance treated religious land uses “worse than comparable secular uses” and unreasonably limited religious land use.
They specifically cited impacts on Kingston’s Orthodox Jewish Chabad community, stating that because of restrictions such as requiring places of worship to obtain special use permits, the community has “struggled to find sufficient, suitable places for prayer, religious study, religious schools and mikvahs (ritual baths).”
The DOJ announced an agreement with Kingston, also in February, to revise the zoning ordinance to bring it in line with federal law. A consent order followed.
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Aronson said the revisions were a “step in the right direction,” but expressed concern that the ordinance will still be in violation of RLUIPA.
“(It’s) moving from not being able to build synagogues anywhere in the town, practically speaking, to being able to build somewhere in the town at least,” he said.
The council meeting room at the Kingston municipal building was full, with several people standing in the hallway outside. More than a dozen residents, including members of the Chabad community, shared concerns and questions and spoke during public comment.
Congress passed RLUIPA in 2000 after hearing testimony that land use and zoning regulations often burden religious institutions seeking to exercise their faiths, according to the DOJ.
What’s changed about the revised ordinance
Rhodes began the hearing Tuesday by reviewing the changes made to the ordinance.
The original ordinance, passed in December 2023, required places of worship to be built on at least one acre of land. DOJ argued that “no acreage restriction is placed on comparable nonreligious assembly uses." That requirement is now removed.
The revisions approved on Tuesday also allow places of worship, religious schools and associated dormitories to be built in commercial districts or in residential districts with a special exception.
Borough council went into a brief executive session immediately following the public hearing to discuss the hearing, president Kate McMahon said.
"We feel that the amendments do meet the consent order that we entered into with the Department of Justice,” she said.
Council member Paul Keating, who made the motion for the vote, said the revisions were made by accepting input from the public.
Aronson still took issue with the zones in which religious schools and places of worship can be built.
M1, or light industrial zones, are excluded for religious use under the ordinance. Aronson pointed out that other comparable “secular” assembly places like martial arts studios, yoga studios and “other places of youth education,” are allowed.
Joanna Brynn Smith, a member of Luzerne County Council and a resident of Kingston, questioned why the DOJ had to get involved in the first place.
“I'm deeply disheartened and disappointed that it had to take an intervention by the Department of Justice for this council to remove the obviously discriminatory provisions in this ordinance,” she said.
