Chabad Sues City Over Zoning Restrictions

Cooper City, FL — For more than two years, congregants from the Chabad of Nova have been unsuccessfully petitioning Cooper City officials for a permanent home on Griffin Road. On Friday, they sued the city, claiming discrimination.

The suit, filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, claims Cooper City’s zoning laws are illegally designed to protect the city’s tax base by banning all tax-exempt houses of worship from commercial districts.

“If you’re an adult bookstore you can operate in a commercial district, but if you’re a religious organization, you cannot,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Franklin Zemel, who is representing the Chabad of Nova. “It’s all about money in Cooper City.”

City Attorney Alan Ruf said he is confident the city’s stance is solid.

“I believe that when all things are said and done, the city will prevail,” Ruf said. “They have made a complaint and we don’t agree with them, and we will see what a judge will say.”

According to the lawsuit, the city has discriminated against houses of worship for 30 years by relegating them to the western, agriculturally-zoned borders in order to protect its tax base. Houses of worship do not pay property taxes.

Zemel is the same attorney who successfully represented Chabad Lubavitch in its fight to operate a synagogue in two Hollywood Hills homes. After years of legal wrangling, that synagogue received a $2 million settlement from the city’s insurance company and the right to gradually expand without having to apply for a special permit.

But Zemel said on Friday the Cooper City case is different because it involves a citywide ban prohibiting all religious assemblies from all commercial districts in the city.

“How does a place of worship begin if there’s not a storefront in the city a place of worship can move into?” Zemel said. “And if you want to put it into a private home, you have to put it into a house with 300 feet of frontage.”

Last October, Cooper City relaxed its ordinance by including houses of worship in office parks and recreational facilities, but the commercial district ban remained.

Zemel said Rabbi Shmuel Posner opened a Chabad Outreach Center in the Timberlake shopping plaza last year, but was booted out by Cooper City because of its codes. Posner has temporarily moved the outreach center to 8276 Griffin Road in Davie.

In 2000, Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, designed to give religious groups power to fight local zoning ordinances. Under the act, the federal government can sue a city if it finds discrimination.