Pastor Criminally Charged With Zoning Violations Gets His Day in Court

Happy Tuesday and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. This week’s stories include:

• The New York City Council giving final approval to City of Yes zoning reforms.
• Provo, Utah, moving backward on accessory dwelling units (ADUs).
• Washington, D.C., removing landlords’ ability to set limits on the breed and size of animals they allow on their properties.

But first, our lead story on yet another city’s efforts to shut down a homeless shelter while the weather outside turns frightful.

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Dad’s Place on Trial

It’s coming down to the wire for Dad’s Place.

For close to a year now, the Bryan, Ohio, church and its pastor Chris Avell have been locked in a fierce legal battle with the city government and the local fire chief over a makeshift shelter it’s operated on the first floor of its rented church building.

Dad’s Place has argued that letting people rest and worship in its building 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is an integral, First Amendment–protected part of its ministry. The city and the fire chief have argued the church has illegally converted its commercially zoned space into a residential use, in violation of the local zoning code and the state’s fire code.

Last Thursday, a local trial court sided with Bryan Fire Chief Douglas Pool in a civil suit he’s brought against the church. It granted a preliminary injunction against Dad’s Place, forcing the church to relocate the homeless who had been sheltering there overnight from the cold.

A few days prior, Avell stood trial on criminal charges stemming from his church’s alleged zoning and fire code violations.

On Monday, an Ohio appeals court paused that trial court’s injunction, which temporarily forbids the city from taking enforcement action against Dad’s Place or filing new criminal charges against Avell. The city has until Thursday to respond to the trial court’s ruling. On Friday, attorneys for Avell and the city will meet for a post-trial conference in his criminal case.

“For over a year, we have sought to collaborate with Dad’s Place to address public safety requirements, including the installation of an automatic sprinkler system,” said Bryan Mayor Carrie Schlade in a press release following the Thursday ruling. “Dad’s Place and its legal representatives have opted to engage in a protracted process of filing court motions instead of adhering to the law.”

“It’s safe inside Dad’s Place. We’ve known that for a long time. But it’s 19 degrees over the weekend outside of Dad’s Place,” counters Jeremy Dys, an attorney with the First Liberty Institute, which is representing Avell.

Avell was first criminally charged with close to 20 zoning and fire code violations in January. Those charges were later dropped in February in exchange for Dad’s Place agreeing to “cease residential” operations and cure fire code violations at the building.

This compromise broke down a few months later after a fire inspection from Pool found people sleeping in the church. Charges against Avell were refiled in April.

The sticky legal situation Dad’s Place has found itself in is not unique.

Reason has covered a number of similar cases just this year of city governments shutting down shelters and warming centers because of alleged zoning code violations and safety issues. These are just a few examples of all the red tape and regulations that shelters with limited resources have to contend with when trying to provide temporary housing for the most vulnerable.

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City of Yes Gets Final Approval

At long last, City of Yes has won final approval from the New York City Council.

The suite of zoning reforms, which this newsletter covered in detail two weeks ago, eliminates or reduces minimum parking requirements in much of the city, allows denser housing near transit stops and on commercial corridors, and allows homeowners in many low-density districts to add ADUs to their property.

The City of Yes reforms were first proposed by Mayor Eric Adams back in 2022. The proposal was whittled down during the subsequent two-year planning process.

A plan to eliminate parking minimums citywide was replaced with a more modest reduction in parking requirements. Density allowances were shrunk in some areas, and a few low-density districts were exempted entirely from the plan. ADUs will be allowed in more places, but the property owner will also be required to live on-site (a frequent poison pill policy that significantly reduces ADU construction).

Nevertheless, “yes in my backyard” (YIMBY) zoning reform advocates have celebrated the final passage of City of Yes as a decent first step to build on.

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Utah City Goes Backward on ADUs

Provo, Utah, has two cumbersome processes property owners can use to build ADUs in areas that aren’t zoned for them. The city council just got rid of one of them, reports Utah news outlet KSL.

Prior to the city council vote, groups of property owners could seek allowances for ADUs through appealing to the city council for a zoning amendment that would rezone multiple properties to allow rental units. Individual property owners could also apply for special-use permits to legalize individual ADUs, provided they had support from 66 percent of adjacent neighbors.

The city council’s vote eliminates that latter pathway.

ADU legalization is one of the most successful YIMBY-backed policies, both practically and politically. Homeowners who often oppose any upzoning have been more amenable to allowing granny flats in low-density neighborhoods. Jurisdictions that have done the most to get rid of ADU regulations have seen a boom in ADU construction.

The dynamic is clearly different in Provo, where concerns about single-family neighborhoods being overrun by rental units caused the city to tighten its already restrictive regulations on ADUs. The city will likely see less housing, and more expensive housing, as a result.

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D.C. Considers Eliminating All Dog Breed Restrictions

Washington, D.C., is on the cusp of banning landlords from restricting the size and breed of animals they allow residents to keep on their properties. It also caps pet rents and pet deposits.

Tenant advocates have cheered the policy as protecting people from having to part with their animal friends when seeking housing.

Property owners have criticized the policy as overreaching and saddling them with uncovered liabilities. Tenants will also lose the option of opting into buildings that don’t allow large, vicious beasts to live next door.

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Quick Links

• Public housing didn’t fail, it was sabotaged, argues a new piece in Vox. There’s some interesting history in the piece. Nevertheless, it’s hard to argue that the current incompetent, occasionally criminally corrupt management of public housing in 2024 can be blamed on Richard Nixon.
• GlobeSt has a review of recent state-level zoning reforms in Washington, Colorado, and Hawaii.
• Housing advocates and housing industry groups are urging Congress to pass the YIMBY Act, which requires federal housing grantees to report on the zoning reforms they have adopted (or plan on adopting), before the end of the year.
• Oregon’s state economist blames post-recession credit restrictions, not urban growth boundaries, for the state’s high housing costs. Couldn’t both be bad?
• Forbes on factory-built homes.

 

The post Pastor Criminally Charged With Zoning Violations Gets His Day in Court appeared first on Reason.com.

Source: https://reason.com/2024/12/10/pastor-criminally-charged-with-zoning-violations-gets-his-day-in-court/