Court Opinion

ID: 9881496
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-02 21:00:45.642407+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:15:26.770189
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-11674   Document: 79-1    Date Filed: 10/02/2023   Page: 1 of 19

                                                           [PUBLISH]
                                 In the
                 United States Court of Appeals
                        For the Eleventh Circuit

                         ____________________

                               No. 22-11674
                         ____________________

        THAI MEDITATION ASSOCIATION
        OF ALABAMA, INC.,
        (the “Center”),
        SIVAPORN NIMITYONGSKUL,
        VARIN NIMITYONGSKUL,
        SERENA NIMITYONGSKUL,
        PRASIT NIMITYONGSKUL,
                                                  Plaintiﬀs-Appellants,
        versus
        CITY OF MOBILE, ALABAMA,

                                                  Defendant-Appellee
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        2                        Opinion of the Court                    22-11674

        CITY OF MOBILE PLANNING
        COMMISSION, et al.,

                                                                      Defendants.

                               ____________________

                    Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Southern District of Alabama
                     D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cv-00395-TFM-MU
                             ____________________

        Before WILSON, JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges, and CONWAY,* District
        Judge.
        WILSON, Circuit Judge:
               In this long-running property use dispute, the plaintiffs, the
        Thai Meditation Association of Alabama and four of its organizers
        (collectively, TMAA), seek to convert a property zoned for residen-
        tial use into a meditation center. In Thai Meditation Association of
        Alabama v. City of Mobile, 980 F.3d 821 (11th Cir. 2020) (TMAA I), we
        reviewed the outcome of a bench trial that ended in judgment for
        the City of Mobile on all counts. We affirmed in part but remanded
        three counts for further consideration. Id. at 841. The vacated and

        * Honorable Anne C. Conway, United States District Judge for the Middle Dis-
        trict of Florida, sitting by designation.
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        22-11674              Opinion of the Court                       3

        remanded claims consisted of: (1) a substantial burden challenge
        under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act
        (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc(a)(1); (2) a Free Exercise challenge
        under the First Amendment; and (3) a state law challenge under
        the Alabama Constitution’s Religious Freedom Amendment
        (ARFA). On remand, the district court granted summary judgment
        to the City on all three counts, and this appeal followed.
               After careful review of the record and with the benefit of
        oral argument, we conclude that summary judgment was im-
        proper, for either party, on the RLUIPA claim; summary judgment
        was proper on the Free Exercise claim; and the City has failed to
        carry its burden to satisfy strict scrutiny on the ARFA claim. Ac-
        cordingly, we VACATE in part, AFFIRM in part, and REVERSE
        in part.
                                 I.     Background
               The details of this case were thoroughly recounted in TMAA
        I, so we only recount the facts essential to this decision. TMAA is
        a Buddhist religious organization belonging to the Dhammakaya
        school of Buddhism. TMAA’s “purpose is teaching and research
        into growth and development of mind and spirit through medita-
        tion and expanding the knowledge of Buddhism.” TMAA I, 980
        F.3d at 826 (cleaned up). TMAA has been seeking a permanent
        home in Mobile, Alabama for several years now. In 2007, it oper-
        ated out of a converted house in a residential neighborhood. After
        neighbors complained and TMAA was unable to obtain the proper
        zoning authorization, it moved to its present location inside a
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        4                      Opinion of the Court                 22-11674

        shopping center. Because this location is on a commercial street
        and shares a building with commercial businesses, TMAA alleges it
        is far too loud and disruptive for them to meditate—that is, to prac-
        tice their religion. TMAA also alleges their current location is too
        small to allow them to hold classes to teach others about their reli-
        gion. Id.
                In Mobile, there are two zoning classifications relevant to
        this appeal. The first is the R-1 zoning designation, which allows
        for residential usage as of right and allows for other uses—like reli-
        gious uses—subject to “planning approval” by the Planning Com-
        mission. The second is the commercial zoning designation, which
        allows certain uses—including religious uses—by right. TMAA’s
        first location, the converted house, was in an R-1 district. TMAA’s
        second and current location is in a commercial district.
                In 2015, TMAA bought the house that is the subject of this
        litigation, the Eloong Drive property. Like TMAA’s original loca-
        tion, the Eloong Drive property is located in an R-1 residential dis-
        trict and thus required planning approval to be put to a religious
        use. Before purchasing the property, TMAA engaged in pre-ap-
        proval meetings with City officials, and TMAA alleges they re-
        ceived positive feedback on their preliminary plans. When TMAA
        finally submitted its application, it received immense pushback
        from the public. Many public comments focused on, and objected
        to, the Buddhist character of TMAA’s proposed usage. Some ques-
        tioned whether TMAA’s usage was even religious at all. Some
        commentors objected to TMAA’s application because of concerns
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        22-11674               Opinion of the Court                         5

        about compatibility and traffic in the small neighborhood in which
        the Eloong Drive property is located. Ultimately, noting those
        compatibility concerns, the Planning Commission denied TMAA’s
        application, and the City Council denied TMAA’s appeal. This suit
        followed.
               TMAA alleged six counts against the City, and the district
        court originally ruled in favor of the City on all six counts. In TMAA
        I, we vacated the district court’s analysis of the RLUIPA substantial
        burden claim, the Free Exercise claim, and the ARFA claim. 980
        F.3d at 841. On remand, the parties filed cross-motions for sum-
        mary judgment on these three counts. The district court again
        granted summary judgment to the City on all three claims. We
        address each of these in turn.
                              II.    Standard of Review
                We review the district court’s grant or denial of summary
        judgment de novo, applying the same legal standard as the district
        court. Seff v. Broward Cnty., 691 F.3d 1221, 1222–23 (11th Cir. 2012).
        Summary judgment is proper where, construing all facts in favor
        of the non-movant, there is no genuine issue of any material fact
        and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. at
        1223. This appeal arises from the district court’s resolution of
        cross-motions for summary judgment. “In practice, cross motions
        for summary judgment may be probative of the nonexistence of a
        factual dispute.” Ga. State Conf. of NAACP v. Fayette Cnty., 775 F.3d
        1336, 1345 (11th Cir. 2015) (cleaned up) (quoting Shook v. United
        States, 713 F.2d 662, 665 (11th Cir. 1983)). But we have cautioned
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        6                       Opinion of the Court                22-11674

        that the mere filing of cross-motions “do[es] not automatically em-
        power the court” to enter summary judgment for one party. Id.
        (quoting La Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v.
        Voigt, 700 F.2d 341, 349 (7th Cir. 1983)). Instead, the district court
        must methodically take each motion in turn and construe all the
        facts in favor of the non-movant for each. If, after engaging in this
        analysis, the district court determines no genuine issue of material
        fact exists, then it may appropriately enter summary judgment for
        a party.
                         III.   RLUIPA Substantial Burden
               “Congress sought, through RLUIPA, to protect religious
        land uses from discriminatory processes used to exclude or other-
        wise limit the location of churches and synagogues in municipali-
        ties across the country.” Midrash Sephardi, Inc. v. Town of Surfside,
        366 F.3d 1214, 1236 (11th Cir. 2004). Under RLUIPA,
              (a)(1) No government shall impose or implement a
              land use regulation in a manner that imposes a sub-
              stantial burden on the religious exercise of a person,
              including a religious assembly or institution, unless
              the government demonstrates that imposition of the
              burden on that person, assembly, or institution—

                  (A) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental
                      interest; and

                  (B) is the least restrictive means of furthering that
                      compelling governmental interest.

        42 U.S.C. § 2000cc(a)(1).
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        22-11674                   Opinion of the Court                                  7

                Shortly after the passage of RLUIPA, we interpreted this
        substantial burden provision in Midrash Sephardi. There, we held
        that “a ‘substantial burden’ must place more than an inconvenience
        on religious exercise; a ‘substantial burden’ is akin to significant
        pressure which directly coerces the religious adherent to conform
        his or her behavior accordingly.” Midrash Sephardi, 366 F.3d at
        1227. In TMAA I, we applied this standard and clarified that “it isn’t
        necessary for a plaintiff to prove . . . that the government required
        her to completely surrender her religious beliefs; modified behavior,
        if the result of government coercion or pressure, can be enough.”
        TMAA I, 980 F.3d at 831. We then articulated six factors that the
        district court should consider on remand.1

        1 The non-exhaustive factors include: (1) “whether the plaintiffs have demon-
        strated a genuine need for new or more space—for instance, to accommodate
        a growing congregation or to facilitate additional services or programming”;
        (2) “the extent to which the City’s decision, and the application of its zoning
        policy more generally, effectively deprives the plaintiffs of any viable means
        by which to engage in protected religious exercise”; (3) “whether there is a
        meaningful ‘nexus’ between the allegedly coerced or impeded conduct and
        the plaintiffs’ religious exercise”; (4) “whether the City’s decisionmaking pro-
        cess concerning the plaintiffs’ applications reflects any arbitrariness of the sort
        that might evince animus or otherwise suggests that the plaintiffs have been,
        are being, or will be . . . jerked around”; (5) “whether the City’s denial of the
        plaintiffs’ zoning applications was final or whether, instead, the plaintiffs had
        (or have) an opportunity to submit modified applications that might satisfy the
        City’s objections”; and (6) “whether the alleged burden is properly attributable
        to the government . . . or whether the burden is instead self-imposed.” TMAA
        I, 980 F.3d at 831–32 (footnotes omitted).
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        8                      Opinion of the Court                22-11674

               While we received extensive briefing on how to apply this
        framework, including from five groups of amici curiae, we will not
        reach the merits of this issue today. Despite the parties’ represen-
        tation that there are no disputed facts remaining in this case, we
        cannot see how that is true. For one thing, in the district court,
        both TMAA and the City filed lengthy objections to the other’s
        statement of undisputed facts and substituted their own statements
        of undisputed facts. See NAACP, 775 F.3d at 1345 (noting this situa-
        tion suggests summary judgment is inappropriate). Moreover, as
        will be discussed below, these factual disputes are both genuine and
        material. Accordingly, due to these disputes, the district court
        should not have entered summary judgment for either party in this
        case on the RLUIPA count.
               We provide two illustrative—though not exhaustive—ex-
        amples of material factual disputes that remain. One of the factors
        relates to whether there are alternative sites for TMAA to use.
        TMAA I, 980 F.3d at 832. The City argues that TMAA owns a 100-
        acre parcel that would be suitable for its meditation center.
        TMAA’s land-use expert has opined that this site is unsuitable for
        TMAA’s intended use. The availability of a large property similar
        to the Eloong Drive property would weigh heavily on this factor.
        A factual dispute like this on a key factor precludes the issuance of
        summary judgment at this stage.
             Similarly, another factor deals with whether the Planning
        Commission’s denial of TMAA’s application reflected arbitrariness.
        Id. TMAA cites several specific instances of the Planning
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        22-11674                   Opinion of the Court                                 9

        Commission deviating from its typical procedure, failing to work
        with TMAA, and allegedly editing the minutes of its meetings to
        obscure the true reason for the denial of planning approval. The
        City disputes that there were any irregularities in its processes, and
        denies the minutes were edited. Again, only one of these accounts
        can be right, and it bears on an important factor of the substantial-
        burden analysis laid out in TMAA I.
              Because factual disputes like these preclude the issuance of
        summary judgment to either party, we vacate the entry of sum-
        mary judgment on the RLUIPA count.2
                                 IV.     Free Exercise Clause
               Turning next to the district court’s entry of summary judg-
        ment on TMAA’s First Amendment Free Exercise claim. In TMAA
        I, we directed the district court to independently evaluate the Free
        Exercise claim, rather than cross-reference its analysis of—and ex-
        pressly tether its rejection to—the RLUIPA substantial burden is-
        sue. TMAA I, 980 F.3d at 833. However, on remand, the district

        2 One option available to the district court in this situation would have been
        to convert the cross-motions for summary judgment into a bench trial. See
        NAACP, 775 F.3d at 1345–46 (describing this option); see also Voigt, 700 F.2d at
        349. If the court had done so, it would have proceeded under Federal Rule of
        Civil Procedure 52, which would have mandated compliance with Rule 52(a)’s
        requirement that findings of fact and conclusions of law be entered. See Fed.
        R. Civ. P. 52(a)(1). If this option had been taken, there would be a clear factual
        record enabling our review of the district court’s legal conclusions. But that
        did not happen here. Instead, the district court entered summary judgment in
        this matter and that is how the parties have addressed the issues on appeal.
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        10                     Opinion of the Court                    22-11674

        court carried over much of its original analysis after briefly con-
        cluding that “Plaintiffs have not shown the Zoning Ordinance tar-
        geted religious practices or imposed burdens on religious conduct
        in a selective manner[, therefore] rational basis review applies.”
        Again, this was error. In light of this error, we will review the rec-
        ord to determine whether the City was properly entitled to sum-
        mary judgment on TMAA’s Free Exercise claim. See Gundy v. City
        of Jacksonville, 50 F.4th 60, 70 (11th Cir. 2022) (“We may affirm the
        judgment of the district court on any ground supported by the rec-
        ord, regardless of whether that ground was relied upon or even
        considered by the district court.”) (citations omitted).
               The Free Exercise Clause provides that “Congress shall
        make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise [of religion].” U.S.
        Const. amend. I. However, government action may incidentally
        burden religious practices—subject to rational basis review—so
        long as it is both “neutral” and “generally applicable.” Emp. Div.,
        Dep’t of Hum. Res. of Or. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 880 (1990). The Su-
        preme Court recently clarified these two principles:
              A government policy will not qualify as neutral if it is
              “specifically directed at . . . religious practice.” . . . A
              government policy will fail the general applicability
              requirement if it “prohibits religious conduct while
              permitting secular conduct that undermines the gov-
              ernment’s asserted interests in a similar way,” or if it
              provides “a mechanism for individualized exemp-
              tion.”
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        22-11674                   Opinion of the Court                                 11

        Kennedy v. Bremerton Sch. Dist., 142 S. Ct. 2407, 2422 (2022) (citations
        omitted). Notably, we have found the enforcement of zoning or-
        dinances as both neutral and generally applicable. See First Assembly
        of God of Naples, Fla., Inc. v. Collier Cnty., 20 F.3d 419, 422–24 (11th
        Cir. 1994). Several of our sister circuits have come to the same
        conclusion.3
                Here, the R-1 zoning designation process satisfies Smith’s re-
        quirements. First, the planning approval process is neutral. We
        affirmed that TMAA failed to prove that a majority of the Planning
        Commission acted with an intent to discriminate on the basis of
        religion, TMAA I, 980 F.3d at 836, and because TMAA raised only
        general applicability challenges in their present brief, they have
        abandoned any additional neutrality arguments on appeal. See
        Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridians Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 680 (11th Cir.
        2014). Second, the R-1 planning approval process does not provide
        the type of discretionary exemption that violates general applica-
        bility. When a use requires planning approval, the ordinances im-
        pose specific criteria that guide the approval or denial of a particu-
        lar use. 4 While the approval process necessarily requires individual

        3 See, e.g., Grace United Methodist Church v. City of Cheyenne, 451 F.3d 643, 651
        (10th Cir. 2006); C.L. for Urban Believers v. City of Chicago, 342 F.3d 752, 764–65
        (7th Cir. 2003); Lighthouse Inst. for Evangelism, Inc. v. City of Long Branch, 510
        F.3d 253, 277 (3d Cir. 2007).
        4 The use must be “appropriate with regard to transportation and access, wa-
        ter supply, waste disposal, fire and police protection and other public facili-
        ties”; not cause “undue traffic congestion or create[e] a traffic hazard”; and be
        “in harmony with the orderly and appropriate development of the district in
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        12                     Opinion of the Court                 22-11674

        assessment, it is not sufficient to establish an individualized exemp-
        tion. The criteria apply to all property uses eligible for approval,
        religious or secular. Furthermore, the scheme does not allow for
        the kind of blanket discretionary mechanism that historically fails
        Smith’s general applicability requirement. See Fulton v. City of Phil-
        adelphia, 141 S. Ct. 1868, 1878 (2021) (holding that a city official’s
        “sole discretion” to deny exceptions from the non-discrimination
        referral provision for a Catholic adoption center is not generally
        applicable).
                As a result, Mobile’s R-1 zoning designation process is both
        neutral and generally applicable, subjecting it to rational basis re-
        view. Because rational basis review is “highly deferential to gov-
        ernment action,” we agree that the City’s asserted interests in traf-
        fic safety and zoning are “rationally related to a legitimate govern-
        ment interest.” See Jones v. Governor of Fla., 950 F.3d 795, 809 (11th
        Cir. 2020) (per curiam). We therefore affirm the entry of summary
        judgment on TMAA’s Free Exercise count.
                  V.     Alabama Religious Freedom Amendment
               Turning now to TMAA’s state constitutional law claim. The
        ARFA’s purpose “is to guarantee that the freedom of religion is not
        burdened by state and local law; and to provide a claim or defense
        to persons whose religious freedom is burdened by government.”
        Ala. Const. amend. 622, § III. The ARFA applies to local

        which the use is located.” See Mobile Code of Ordinances § 64-12(1)(b)
        (amended and reincorporated in 2022).
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        22-11674               Opinion of the Court                         13

        governments, like the City of Mobile, id. § IV(3), and provides that
        they “shall not burden a person’s freedom of religion” unless the
        city can demonstrate that the burden is the least restrictive means
        of achieving a compelling government interest. Id. §§ V(a), V(b).
        Thus, ARFA, like RLUIPA, requires the government’s action to sat-
        isfy strict scrutiny to survive review. However, the ARFA is trig-
        gered by a much lower burden on religious freedom than RLUIPA.
        While RLUIPA requires a “substantial” burden, we held in TMAA I
        that under ARFA, “any burden—even an incidental or insubstantial
        one—suffices to trigger strict scrutiny.” TMAA I, 980 F.3d at 840.
               We also held that TMAA’s efforts to construct a meditation
        center and relocate to a site more conducive to their religious prac-
        tices implicated TMAA’s religious freedom rights. Id. at 829.
        While it is still uncertain at this stage whether the City’s planning
        decision is a substantial burden on TMAA’s rights, it clearly is a bur-
        den. It therefore clears TMAA I’s low bar to trigger ARFA’s strict
        scrutiny review.
               Before turning to the strict scrutiny analysis, we first address
        the City’s threshold argument that the ARFA simply does not apply
        to zoning decisions like the one at issue here. The ARFA broadly
        applies to “[a]ny government statute, regulation, ordinance, ad-
        ministrative provision, ruling guideline, requirement, or any state-
        ment of law whatever.” Ala. Const. amend. 622, § IV(4); see also id.
        § VI(a) (“This amendment applies to all government rules and im-
        plementations thereof, whether statutory or otherwise . . . .”). The
        City’s zoning regulations and approval decisions fall within the
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        14                      Opinion of the Court                    22-11674

        wide breadth of this definition. The City argues the ARFA’s con-
        ception of “religious freedom” is co-extensive with Article I, § 3 of
        the Alabama Constitution, and thus narrower than that of the First
        Amendment.
                We decline to accept this argument because it is contrary to
        the observed practice of Alabama courts interpreting the Alabama
        Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion in lockstep with
        the federal Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees. See, e.g.,
        Ex parte Hilley, 405 So. 2d 708, 711 (Ala. 1981) (“Viewed in the light
        of the free exercise clauses of the United States Constitution,
        amend. I, and the Alabama Constitution, art. I, § 3 . . . .”); Rheuark
        v. State, 601 So. 2d 135,139–40 (Ala. Crim. App. 1992) (citing United
        States Supreme Court precedent to resolve a challenge under both
        the federal First Amendment and the Alabama Constitution). And
        the Alabama Supreme Court has expressly held that Article I, § 3 of
        the Alabama Constitution is “not more restrictive than the Federal
        Establishment of Religion Clause in the First Amendment to the
        United States Constitution.” Alabama Educ. Ass’n v. James, 373 So.
        2d 1076, 1081 (Ala. 1979); see also id. (describing Article I, § 3 as “the
        Alabama counterpart of the Religion Clauses of the First Amend-
        ment to the United States Constitution” (emphasis added)). All of
        this evidence tends to cast doubt on the City’s cabined view of the
        Alabama Constitution’s protections for religious freedom.
             Finally, we are persuaded that a narrow cabining of ARFA
        would be inconsistent with its ratification context, see Ala. Const.
        amend. 622, § II(4)–(6) (describing ARFA in the context of federal
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        22-11674                  Opinion of the Court                              15

        constitutional law developments in Employment Division v. Smith,
        494 U.S. 872 (1990) and City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997)), 5
        and its broad remedial purpose, id. § VII(a) (“This amendment shall
        be liberally construed to effectuate its remedial and deterrent pur-
        poses.”). Given this evidence, we feel comfortable rejecting the
        City’s argument that ARFA and Article I, § 3 of the Alabama Con-
        stitution have a narrower conception of religious freedom than the
        First Amendment. And accordingly, we conclude that the ARFA
        applies to the City’s zoning decision to the extent that it restricts
        TMAA’s, or its members’, right to worship freely and practice their
        religion as they conceive it.
                                          *       *       *
                Having resolved that threshold question, we turn to the
        strict scrutiny analysis. To survive strict scrutiny under ARFA, the
        City must carry its burden to demonstrate that its planning decision
        is the least restrictive means to achieve a compelling government
        interest. Ala. Const. amend. 622, § V(b). A compelling govern-
        ment interest is one that advances “interests of the highest order.”
        Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, 546
        (1993). Further, “generalized statement[s] of interests, unsup-
        ported by specific and reliable evidence” will not do. See Davila v.
        Gladden, 777 F.3d 1198, 1206 (11th Cir. 2015). Allowing govern-
        ment entities to state their interest at the highest levels of

        5 Compare with Midrash Sephardi, 366 F.3d at 1236–37 (describing a similar con-
        text for RLUIPA).
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        16                      Opinion of the Court                   22-11674

        generality permits them to shrug off the heavy burden that strict
        scrutiny analysis is designed to impose.
                Here, the district court concluded that the city satisfied strict
        scrutiny because denial of TMAA’s application was the least restric-
        tive means to further “[t]he City’s interest to preserve the character
        of the property and the surrounding neighborhood.” Thai Medita-
        tion Ass’n of Ala. v. City of Mobile, 599 F. Supp. 3d 1120, 1144 (S.D.
        Ala. 2022) The City also argues that concerns about increased traf-
        fic at the Eloong Drive Property constitute a compelling govern-
        ment interest. We find these asserted interests lacking.
                To begin, we have never held that neighborhood character
        or zoning are compelling government interests sufficient to justify
        abridging core constitutional rights. Indeed, in Solantic, LLC v. City
        of Neptune Beach, we held that “aesthetics and traffic safety” were
        not compelling government interests justifying content-based re-
        strictions on signs. 410 F.3d 1250, 1267–69 (11th Cir. 2005). Simi-
        larly, a group of amici curiae in this case direct us to Dimmit v. City
        of Clearwater, 985 F.2d 1565, 1570 (11th Cir. 1993), where we again
        held that “visual aesthetics and traffic safety . . . [are] not a compel-
        ling state interest” in the First Amendment speech context. Those
        amici also note that generalized, high-level invocations of “zoning”
        are often used to target minority faith’s land use applications. See
        Br. of Amicus Curiae of the General Conference of Seventh-Day
        Adventists, et al., at 25–26. These concerns underscore why it is
        necessary to hold government entities to their burden to state and
        support a well-defined government interest.
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        22-11674               Opinion of the Court                         17

               The City notes that we said in Grosz v. City of Miami Beach,
        721 F.2d 729 (11th Cir. 1983) that “zoning objectives” were a “sig-
        nificant” government interest. Id. at 738–40. Grosz is of little per-
        suasive weight here because it was decided under an ad hoc balanc-
        ing framework and not the strict scrutiny, “compelling govern-
        ment” interest framework we apply today. See id. at 740. We think
        that Grosz means what it says: “zoning objectives” may be “signifi-
        cant” government interests and may justify government action in
        a different balancing context. However, the ARFA requires that
        the government’s interest be “compelling,” and vague, generalized
        invocations of government interests in “zoning” and “neighbor-
        hood character” are insufficient to carry the government’s burden.
                Here, the City has failed to carry its burden to demonstrate
        a compelling government interest. The generalized invocations of
        neighborhood character and zoning fail as a matter of law under
        our precedents. The City’s invocation of traffic concerns fare
        slightly better because they are specific to the Eloong Drive prop-
        erty, but they are unsubstantiated in the record. The City’s own
        traffic engineer testified that there would be no traffic safety issues
        at the Eloong Drive property site from a traffic engineering per-
        spective. That engineer further testified that the increase in the
        number of vehicles traveling along the streets to the Eloong Drive
        property would not be substantial if TMAA’s application were ap-
        proved. However, the engineer did testify that the increase in traf-
        fic would be large in terms of a percentage change because the
        roads are so infrequently used presently. The City discusses at
        length the statements of neighbors living near the Eloong Drive
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        18                     Opinion of the Court                22-11674

        Property to substantiate its concerns about traffic. But review of
        these statements reveals that they are the same generalized, some-
        times speculative, concerns that we have cautioned are inappropri-
        ate. To carry its burden to demonstrate a compelling government
        interest, the City must present more evidence of its interest, and
        that evidence must be specific. The City must link its concerns to
        the particular details, and alleged ills, posed by TMAA’s applica-
        tion. Because it failed to do so, it was not entitled to summary
        judgment in this matter. Further, unlike the RLUIPA and Free Ex-
        ercise claims there are no disputed facts remaining for this issue.
        The testimony of the city engineer, and the neighbors at the Plan-
        ning Commission meeting are in the record and are insufficient to
        support that the City has a compelling government interest in
        denying TMAA’s application. Accordingly, we reverse the entry of
        summary judgment on this count and direct the district court to
        enter judgment for TMAA.
                                  VI.    Conclusion
               Because there are factual disputes relating to the burden that
        the City has imposed on TMAA, summary judgment was improper
        on the RLUIPA substantial claim. Accordingly, we VACATE the
        entry of summary judgment on that count. Because the City’s
        planning approval process satisfies rational basis review, summary
        judgment was proper on the Free Exercise claim. Accordingly, we
        AFFIRM the entry of summary judgment on that count. Because
        the City is imposing a burden on TMAA’s religious freedom, and
        because it has failed to carry its burden to demonstrate a compel-
        ling government interest, TMAA is entitled to judgment on the
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        ARFA claim. Accordingly, we REVERSE the entry of summary
        judgment on the ARFA claim and REMAND with instructions to
        enter judgment for TMAA.
               VACATED in part, AFFIRMED in part, and REVERSED
        in part, REMANDED with instructions.