Judge: Conejo Chabad Can’t Have More People Except for 10 Days a Year
An Oak Park synagogue will be allowed to exceed its occupancy limit 10 days a year under a decision handed down Tuesday.
Leaders of Chabad of Oak Park want to double the number of people allowed at the synagogue to 145 on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays, double the current 70.
Under a compromise adopted Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, they can get 100 people on 10 days that the chabad leaders pick each year.
Rabbi Shlomo Bistritzky said it’s not enough.
“The decision puts a tremendous restriction on the practice of our faith,” he said after the supervisors’ hearing lasting more than two hours in Ventura.
Worshippers cannot easily get to another service if 70 people are inside the chabad because their orthodox Jewish beliefs prohibit driving on the Sabbath, Bistritzky said.
The hearing before county supervisors was the last alternative in appeals before county government decision-makers, leaving court action as likely the only other choice.
Bistritzy declined comment on whether the chabad would sue in federal court. The chabad has retained an attorney who has argued for months that the maximum occupancy must be raised under a federal law protecting the exercise of religion.
Bistritzky said the chabad’s leaders would be considering their next step over the next few weeks.
The chabad’s attorney, Philip Dunn, says the county must raise the occupancy limit under terms of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
But the Ventura County Planning Commission in an earlier hearing did not agree after Assistant County Counsel Robert Kwong said the chabad had failed to meet a variety of technical grounds.
County Counsel Leroy Smith reiterated that advice Tuesday. He told the board the federal law does not trump the county permit governing the chabad’s use of a converted house in a neighborhood zoned for single-family homes.
Smith said the law kicks in when local regulations makes it “nearly impossible” for a faith group to exercise its religion. The chabad has not shown that kind of burden, nor can it be shown that it is being treated differently than a non-religious institution, he said.
Board members wrestled with the chabad’s appeal, saying they wanted some solution to the standoff between the congregation and residents of the neighborhood complaining about noise, traffic and parking accompanying the chabad’s growth.
The neighbors left the hearing room with smiles on their faces.
“We appreciate all the time the county has spent on this,” resident Lenore Lewis said. “We respect the supervisors’ decision.”
correct name of the chabad house
It’s Conejo with an O not an A. Besides it’s really the chabad of oak park which is just legally under the chabad of the Conejo (Agoura Hills).
disgusted
Now they need to raise money to buy a massive property, preferably a disused place of worship, so they don’t have to deal with this garbage again.
To Number 2
Obviously you are frustrated, but imagine buying a home on a quiet street and some christian or muslim group opened up. You would be frustrated as well.
Oak Park Resident
To Number 3: What you may not know is that Chabad of Oak Park has been in the same converted house for 18 years and has never had any prior problems with their neighbors. In fact, the neighbors who filed the complaint don’t live anywhere near the Chabad. They are just a handful of mean spirited people who don’t particularly like the fact that more religious Jews are moving into the area. They are well aware that if they limit the Chabad’s occupancy capacity they can, de facto, limit the number of religious Jews who can live in the area. It is a very clear case of shameful discrimination.
Oak Park Resident
You might be even more surprised to know that the one opponent who does live near Chabad is an elderly and confused gentleman who has actually been looked after and tended to by many of the Chabad members over the years and been invited into their homes for meals and companionship – even during the time when he was openly opposing their very existence in the neighborhood! In fact, he came to pray at the Chabad and was warmly greeted during a particularly lonely evening just a couple of weeks ago!