The Religion of Parking: How Land Use Planning Enables Anti-Muslim Prejudice

Problem, research strategy, and findings In this article we consider a neglected injustice of parking policy: religious intolerance. Through qualitative interviews and a review of public hearing transcripts and official records, we show how residents and officials across the country use parking concerns to mask anti-Muslim prejudice and fight the construction of mosques. We have isolated the role of religious discrimination quantitatively through a paired comparison of mosques and churches, finding newly proposed mosques are 16% to 18% more likely to experience opposition than newly proposed churches nearby. Further, in contrast to the mosques, parking concerns with the churches never made local news. By comparing parking ratios, we also demonstrate both mosques and churches typically provided more parking than codes required. These findings from our mixed-methods study expand the transportation equity agenda to include religion and create space for planners to rethink how intolerance enters planning practice.Takeaway for practice Planners should consider how zoning provisions that allow for regulatory discretion, such as parking requirements, open up avenues for prejudice. Although planners can shut down or disregard openly discriminatory comments at public hearings, it is hard for them to assess whether concerns over parking—and, by extension, other technical issues such as traffic and water—are genuine or are masks for underlying animus. Although federal laws like the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) protect religious institutions from discrimination, mosque proponents and their attorneys are often reluctant to file lawsuits, particularly against agencies with discretionary authority, due to fear of costs and delays, or simply a desire to be friendly neighbors. Countering prejudice in land use planning therefore calls for removing procedural obstacles to development, giving city staff the authority to handle more permitting decisions ministerially, and eliminating parking requirements altogether.