HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Hallandale Beach, Fla.'s, city commission is considering a measure that would ban houses of worship along the area's popular South Federal Highway, according to The Miami Herald.
The mile-long stretch is prime land for hotels and offices, according to city commissioners who hope to increase the city's tax revenues. Religious establishments are not taxed.
"The uproar is about nothing because there's the whole rest of the city to put churches," said Christy Dominguez, Hallandale Beach's acting director of development services.
The city's proposal has prompted objections from a Washington-based watchdog group that promotes and defends religious expression, according to the paper. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty bases its concerns on a 2000 federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which limits a government's authority to say where religious institutions belong.
The act prohibits governments from imposing land-use laws that treat religious institutions or assemblies differently from nonreligious uses such as a restaurant or library.
No religious institutions are in the corridor in question, and none has applied to build there, according to city officials.
