Christian Fellowship Centers of New York Inc. v. Village of Canton

MEMORANDUM-DECISION AND ORDERI. INTRODUCTION Last July, Plaintiff Christian Fellowship Centers of New York, Inc. (the “Church”) bought a former restaurant at 25 Court Street in downtown Canton, New York (the “Property”) intending to use it as a church. However, Section 325-11 (the “Ordinance”) of the Canton Village Code prohibits houses of worship from operating in the downtown zone even though it permits not-for-profit organizations to use nearby properties to meet for secular purposes. See Dkt. Nos. 22-5 (“Zoning Code”), 22-6 (“Zoning Board of Appeals Record”) at 25, 42-43.¹ The Church claims that the Zoning Code and the Ordinance violate the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), 42 U.S.C. §§2000cc(a)(1), (b)(1), (b)(3)(D). Dkt. No. 1 (“Complaint”)

72-113.The Church now moves for a preliminary (or permanent) injunction requesting that the Court (1) enjoin the Village of Canton (the “Village”) from enforcing the Ordinance and the Zoning Code; (2) declare them unlawful; and (3) order the parties to confer concerning damages. Dkt. No. 13 (the “Motion”). For the following reasons, the Motion is granted in part and denied in part. The Village is enjoined from enforcing the Ordinance to prevent the Church from using the Property as a church pending further proceedings to determine whether the injunction should be made permanent.II. LEGAL STANDARDTo obtain a preliminary injunction against “government action taken in the public interest pursuant to a statutory or regulatory scheme,” a plaintiff must show that it is likely (first) to succeed on the merits and (second) to suffer irreparable injury without an injunction. See Cent. Rabbinical Cong. of U.S. & Canada v. N.Y.C. Dep’t of Health & Mental Hygiene, 763 F.3d 183, 192 (2d Cir. 2014). “Third…the balance of hardships between the plaintiff and defendant” must “tip in the plaintiff’s favor.” Salinger v. Colting, 607 F.3d 68, 80 (2d Cir. 2010). Fourth, “the public’s interest” must in fact “weigh in favor of granting [the] injunction.” Id.III. FACTUAL BACKGROUNDA. The Church and the PropertyThe Church is a New York not-for-profit corporation founded in the 1970s. Compl.