“The particular Zoning Code at issue has been in place since 1968, and it clearly and unequivocally prohibits the following uses within the Historical-Rural Residential District: “Place of Worship,” “Place of Assembly,” “Commercial Venue/Event Space,” and “Special or Studio School.”
“Like them or not, zoning codes that restrict or even prohibit certain uses are permissible under the 1st, 5th, and 14th Amendments to to the United States Constitution. As applied specifically to “places of worship,” a municipality, under the US Constitution and federal law (i.e., the Religious Land Uses and Institutionalized Persons Act), can completely prohibit religious uses in a zoning district as long as the municipality does not completely ban places of worship from all zoning districts within the municipality, treats places of worship the same as similar, non religious uses (i.e., non-religious places of assembly), and does not discriminate between religious uses. “
Seems to me that if you are going to nab them for singing hymns, you also need to prosecute any birthday parties, reunions, July 4 celebrations, etc.
There's another angle to this, too.
A municipality cannot completely prohibit religious uses in a zoning district if they routinely give variances for other non-religious uses.
That's how local municipalities ended up on the losing end of a couple of religious/zoning cases here in New Jersey -- one involving a mosque and another involving a yeshiva.
The Zoning Code defines "Places of Worship" as follows: " A building, structure, and/or lot where people regularly observe, practice, or participate in religious or spiritual services, meetings, and/or activities or that is designed (or adapted) for the assembly or collection of persons for civic, political, religious, educational, social, recreational, and amusement purposes. " The key word is "regularly."