This zoning change...started out as a way to tighten down on older homes in the region which were being rented out to immigrant families and were being used to house more than just the family itself. Various other parties have piled onto the zoning change, and it figures into dozens of scenarios....one of which revolves around prayer groups. Another group in this discussion are the swinger-types, and there’s even the teen crowd utilizing dad’s house on Friday night for huge parties involving a hundred or more teenagers. So, as much as we might say it’s anti-religious in nature....it got created to cover a number of problems that homeowners are upset about.
I can’t imagine fitting 49 people in my home for a Bible study - I would imagine that a number of people such as this would cause localized parking and or noise problems but why not deal with that on a case by case basis and use the laws currently available!
I imagine the attitudes here would be different if the meetings were for some other purpose. This is an issue of conducting commercial type activity in a residential setting. Not a religious issue. If my neighbor starts having groups of 50+ people over every week and it’s causing parking and other problems then I guess I’m going to turn socialist and vote to restrict said activities.
If you have 50 people in a Bible study, it NEEDS to be broken up into 6 or 8 individual studies, to allow for growth.
Leaders need to be developed.
It needs to spread geographically.
Individuals need to participate, not just watch the same 3 or 4 people who like to hear themselves talk.
That makes it sound like a triple for big government liberals, but it's better than that from their perspective. They also get to trample private property rights, so America's enemies no doubt consider this evil law a home run.
My house would not comforrtably hold 49 people but my neighbors can host as many people as they want, as long as they don’t block my drive way or hoop and holler all night.
Come to think of it, I doubt that there’s a house in my hood that could comfortably host 49 people.
In an ordinary home, who has enough chairs to seat 50 people in different rooms, let alone one room? I guess you could do it if you had a large enclosed porch or a large finished basement and stored a supply of folding chairs. But parking would make it difficult for anyone else in the neighborhood to host even a small gathering at the same time.
And we’re talking about almost weekly according to this ordinance.
I think the restriction is reasonable and people can work around it for religious purposes. How about 25 people every week or over 49 twice a month?
Restaurants are usually more than happy to set aside a room for large groups on a regular basis because it’s good for business.