Moxley v. Town of Walkersville, Civil Action No. RDB 08-1763.
| Decision Date | 06 March 2009 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. RDB 08-1763. |
| Citation | 601 F.Supp.2d 648 |
| Parties | David W. MOXLEY, et al., Plaintiffs, v. The TOWN OF WALKERSVILLE, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maryland |
Roman P. Storzer, Storzer and Greene, Washington, DC, Andrew Howard Baida, Benjamin Rosenberg, Caroline L. Hecker, Rosenberg Martin Greenberg LLP, Baltimore, MD, for Plaintiffs.
Daniel Karp, Karpinski Colaresi and Karp PA, Baltimore, MD, Robert Richard McGill, Law Office of Robert McGill, Walkersville, MD, for Defendants.
Plaintiff David W. Moxley ("Moxley") and various other corporate entities, including (1) House Tract, LLC, (2) Farm Tract, LLC, (3) Federal 1781, LLC, (4) House Tract Holding, LLC, and (5) Eco Development, Inc. (collectively "Plaintiffs"), own a 224-acre parcel of land located at 8939 Woodsboro Pike in the Town of Walkersville, Maryland, known by the parties in this lawsuit as the Moxley Farm. On September 7, 2007, Plaintiffs reached agreement to sell the Moxley Farm to the Ahmadiyya Movement of Islam, Inc., a corporation representing the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community ("AMC").1 The AMC intended to use the Moxley Farm as a place of worship and residence for its imam, as well as to hold an annual three-day religious event called the Jalsa Salana. Plaintiffs' seventeen-count Amended Complaint alleges that the sale of the Moxley Farm to the AMC was blocked by government officials and private citizens in a concerted effort motivated by anti-Muslim hostility.
Plaintiffs have named a series of government entities and public officials as Defendants, including (1) the Town of Walkersville, (2) Burgess Ralph Whitmore, (3) Town Commissioners Russell Winch, Donald W. Schildt, Chad Weddle, and Roger Eyler, (4) the Town of Walkersville Board of Appeals, and (5) the Board of Appeals' members, Dan Thomas, Vaughn Zimmerman and Harold Roderuck (collectively the "Government Defendants"). In addition to the Government Defendants, Plaintiff have filed this case against Citizens for Walkersville, LLC, a Maryland limited liability company, and its President, Ed Marino, and Vice President, Steve Berryman (collectively the "Private Defendants"). All Defendants are named in all counts, and the individual Government Defendants are sued in both their official and personal capacities.
Plaintiffs claim that their rights have been violated under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution (by way of 42 U.S.C. § 1983), the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ("RLUIPA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc et seq., the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601, et seq., 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1982, and 1985(3), and Articles 24 (equal protection) and 36 (freedom of religion) of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. Additionally, Plaintiffs have asserted a state law judicial review claim under Md.Code, Art. 66B, § 4.08, and a common law claim for tortious interference with contractual and prospective business relations.
A hearing was conducted on Friday, February 27, 2009 to discuss the two pending motions before this Court: (1) the Government Defendants' Partial Motion to Dismiss (Paper No. 14); and (2) the Private Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Paper No. 15).2 The Government Defendants' Partial Motion to Dismiss seeks to have this case narrowed significantly, but not entirely, and the Private Defendants' Motion to Dismiss seeks dismissal of all claims. For the reasons that follow, the Government Defendants' Partial Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED IN PART and DNIED IN PART, although Plaintiffs' case against the Government Defendants remains largely intact. Furthermore, the Private Defendants Motion to Dismiss is DENIED.
Because this Court is duty bound at this stage in the proceedings to accept all wellpleaded allegations as true, this background is taken almost entirely from Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs are collectively the owners of the Moxley Farm, located at 8939 Woodsboro Pike, Town of Walkersville, Maryland, and Plaintiff Moxley and his family reside at the Moxley Farm. Defendant Ralph Whitmore is the Burgess of the Town of Walkersville, and Defendants Russell Winch, Donald Schildt, Chad Weddle and Roger Eyler are the Commissioners of the Town of Walkersville. Defendants Dan Thomas, Vaughn Zimmerman, and Harold Roderuck comprise the Town of Walkersville Board of Appeals, which is authorized to hear and decide applications for special exception land uses. Citizens for Walkersville is a limited liability company in Maryland, formed allegedly for the sole purpose of preventing the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community ("AMC") from using the Moxley Farm. Defendant Ed Marino is the registered agent and President of Citizens for Walkersville, and Defendant Steve Berryman is the Vice President.
The AMC is a Muslim religious community that was founded in 1889 and that presently includes approximately 15,000 members and 45 mosques in the United States. Its members are of Southeast Asian, Pakistani or East Indian descent, and they have immigrated to the United Stated to avoid religious persecution. The AMC purchased the Moxley Farm for religious purposes only—they intended to use the property to build a mosque for approximately 20 local families, as a residence for its imam and a groundskeeper, and as the site for its annual three-day religious event, the Jalsa Salana. Plaintiffs allege that the Moxley Farm would have remained largely bucolic, as only 6.7% of the Moxley Farm would be used for the aforementioned purposes for 362 days of the year, and an additional 26.7% would be used for temporary tents and parking during the annual three-day religious event.
The Town of Walkersville is located in Frederick County, approximately one-half mile from the City of Frederick. The Moxley Farm is located in the Town's agricultural zoning district. At the time the AMC contracted to purchase the Moxley Farm, the Town of Walkersville permitted places of worship and recreational facilities in the agricultural zoning district through the use of special exceptions. Special exceptions are governed by Walkersville Code § 88-64(A) through (N), which provides several discretionary factors to be applied by the by the Board of Appeals in deciding whether to grant or deny a special exception application.
On August 20, 2007, the AMC publicly disclosed its intention to build a mosque on the Moxley Farm. Two days later, on August 22, 2007, Defendant Weddle, a Town Commissioner, introduced an amendment to the zoning ordinance to prohibit places of worship in the agricultural zoning district (the "Weddle Amendment").
On September 7, 2007, while the Weddle Amendment was still pending, the AMC filed a petition for a special exception under Walkersville Code § 88-24.3 to establish a place of worship with an ancillary multi-purpose recreational facility on the Moxley Farm. The AMC retained various land use professionals (in the fields of traffic engineering, civil engineering, land planning, fire and rescue safety, architecture, and real estate appraisal) to develop a plan that would satisfy public health, safety and welfare issues. The AMC commissioned an examination of traffic patterns for its proposed use, which found that any impact on local traffic would be minimal for 362 days per year, and would not be significant even during the Jalsa Salana event.
A Staff Analysis and Report and Supplemental Staff Comments (the "Staff Report") prepared by the Town Planning and Zoning Administrator Susan Hauver concluded that the AMC's petition listed many accessory facilities and uses commonly associated with places of worship, including, inter alia, "conferences," "concerts," "community outreach events," "company picnics," and "carnivals." The Staff Report stated that "[l]arge scale, outdoor and/or national events are not prohibited" under the Walkersville Code, and that "the applicant's proposal to maintain a large amount of open space and to lease the majority of the property for agricultural use [is] consistent with the policies and goals of the [a]gricultural designation on the plan."
On October 13, 2007, one month after the application was filed, Private Defendants Marino and Berryman are alleged to have held a "secret meeting" at Creamery Park in Walkersville to discuss strategies in preventing the AMC's purchase of the Moxley Farm. Three of the Town Commissioners (Defendants Winch, Schildt, and Weddle) allegedly attended this meeting. Defendant Berryman, acting as a spokesman for Citizens of Walkersville, stated that the "[Citizens of Walkersville has] connections to the Burgess, the [Town Commissioners], the [Appeals Board], [p]olice, [f]ire, [r]escue, [m]edia, [r]etirement homes, GVAA, the City of Frederick, and more." Commissioner Weddle, a prominent member of the allegedly conspiracy, acted as a moderator and gave "talking points" to use against the AMC and told the Private Defendants that following the points would avoid violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ("RLUIPA"). Commissioner Weddle discussed his proposed Weddle Amendment and advised the Private Defendants about how to approach the public hearings on the AMC's petition, including refraining from using "terms like Muslim, those individuals, religion etc.," and how many people should testify. Commissioner Weddle then offered $500 to the Private Defendants to pursue the goal of "beat[ing] the Muslims." A list of recommended attorneys was given to the Private Defendants, and public documents (including the AMC's application for a special exception) were removed from public offices and brought to the meeting for use by the Private Defendants. Commissioner Winch also spoke to the group for 25 minutes, explaining that he was concerned that other members of the AMC would move to the Moxley Farm and could...
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