BATTLE LOOMS FOR SCHOOL TEMPLE MAY SUE UNDER FEDERAL LAW.

Byline: Katie Cooper Staff Writer

BURBANK - With the tussle between local and national interests inextricably tied up with virtually all talk on the future of Burbank Airport, residents may have had their fill of the messy interchange between municipal and federal authority.

But the City Council's denial last week of a day-care center and religious school at a long-established Glenoaks Boulevard synagogue may have opened a whole new front in the battle between local and national control.

After the vote denying permits to build the two-story structure on an adjacent residential street, leaders of Temple Emanu El said they were considering taking legal action under a new federal law that protects religious institutions from some local land-use regulations.

``The leadership feels a horrible mistake was made and the council ignored the law that is directly on point to their situation,'' Robert Bowne, an attorney for the synagogue, said late last week.

The council majority that sided with neighbors and turned down the 4,200-square-foot project gave short shrift to the legislation - the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act - and said they were basing their vote on city zoning codes that protect residential neighborhoods.

Schools, day-care centers and houses of worship are permitted in residential areas, but require the approval of city officials.

Temple Emanu El operates a 60-student day-care center and offers Hebrew instruction to elementary and middle school students, but administrators say the congregation's growing number of young families has pushed them to the limit of their current educational facilities.

For two years, they have sought approval for the project on abutting residential land that was donated to the synagogue. The Planning Commission gave the green light in March, but nearby residents challenged the ruling.

While he declined to comment on the council's vote, City Attorney Dennis Barlow said he could not predict whether RLUIPA would carry any force in a lawsuit.

``The law is not cut and dried,'' he said. ``It's untested.''

RLUIPA, passed last year, protects religious organizations from government regulations that place a substantial burden on the use of property for religious purposes.

Jeffrey Berman, an attorney who represents religious institutions for a downtown Los Angeles powerhouse firm, warned council members in writing before the vote that prohibiting Temple Emanu El from expanding to accommodate its growing ``educational ministry would substantially burden the (synagogue's) religious exercise in violation of ... RLUIPA.''

A Washington, D.C., attorney who serves on a RLUIPA litigation task force and who lobbied for the legislation, said he had been apprised of the council's vote.

``The temple has a strong a case as you could reasonably expect to find under the law,'' said the attorney, who asked that his name not be used because his firm represents Burbank on other matters.

But Bill Rudell, an attorney who represents the homeowners living next door to the proposed construction site, said talk of any legal action under RLUIPA was a red herring.

``It has no applicability in this case,'' said Rudell, a former City Council member. ``I didn't hear any testimony that a denial of the conditional-use permit would affect their ability to provide religious instruction or religious activities.''

And Carol Sobel, former staff counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union who has litigated religion protection cases, said the city of Burbank could have a strong argument defending its right to protect residential areas.

``I don't think the law creates an absolute protection from any zoning law,'' Sobel said. ``It doesn't mean you can transform a residential neighborhood ... or deny a city its interest in maintaining the nature of one.''

While rejecting the project, members of the council voting with the majority indicated they had mixed emotions about blocking the proposed expansion.

``Land-use issues are always one of the most difficult issues a council member has to deal with,'' said Councilman David Laurell, who joined with Mayor Bob Kramer and Councilman Dave Golonski in rejecting the project.

Because two nearby churches have acquired residential property for religious activities, some city officials are privately saying they are concerned that Burbank's image will be hurt by the vote.

A Methodist church six blocks from Temple Emanu El has long operated a nursery school on an adjacent residential street. And a Syrian Orthodox church two blocks down last year purchased abutting residential property that officials plan to use for religious purposes.

Berman warned in his letter that under RLUIPA, the city would have to explain why it turned down the project at the synagogue in light of the current and planned activities at the Christian institutions.

Bowne said that as a lifelong Burbank resident, he was especially saddened by the council's vote.

``This city that I was born and raised in could be depicted as unconcerned about the exercise of religion,'' said Bowne, also a former councilman. ``Or worse yet, that it discriminates against some religious groups. That would break my heart.''