Petition for the Prevention of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act

City Commissioners,

We, the undersigned, request that the Land Development Code Amendment Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (B) not be passed into law in the city of Gainesville.

Though it may be deemed at least equal to the surrounding zones, churches are not completely equal to residences and the commercial zones. These areas are not subject to the same importance as many people view their churches. Churches are places of sanctuary in times of need. It is a shelter where we seek refuge from the troubles of everyday life and pray for help. To request that the churches in the affected zones be subjected to a rule of 100 people per acre of land is simply requesting them to move out of the area; forcing the thousands of people that seek refuge in these churches to find sanctuary elsewhere. What worth is any business that comes in, if people are driven away in search of their churches?

The limitation of the homeless shelters and food distribution centers in the downtown area is also wrong. A perfect city is not created by driving those that are less fortunate away from those that can help. To think of having to turn away the twenty-first person from the homeless shelter or the food distribution center is heartbreaking. Can you live with the idea that regardless of the line theyve had to wait in, the hardships they face everyday as well as the constant prejudice of the people around them that deem them to be something less than equal; that now they have to find some form of shelter from the environment as well as sustenance because of this act that seeks to drive them out of the center of the city so that large businesses can move in? This is not the way to help our city.


We, the undersigned, request that this issue be put under review again so that the city can find a better way of achieving its goals, without having to subject churches, homeless shelters, and food distribution centers to rules that limit their capabilities to help others.