Source: The Appeal-Democrat

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/2006/08/02/news/local_news/news4.txt

On August 7, 2006 The Appeal-Democrat reported, "Sutter County supervisors erred when they rejected a new Sikh temple near Yuba City, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in favor of the Guru Nanak Sikh Society, which asked the county for permission to convert a building on 29 acres of agriculturally-zoned land at 1298 South George Washington Blvd. to a temple accommodating 75 people. The court ruled that supervisors imposed a 'substantial burden' on the Sikhs' religious exercise under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, or RLUIPA. The board had previously refused the Sikhs' request to build on a two-acre site in a residential neighborhood on Grove Road. Sutter County 'did not assert, much less prove, compelling interests for its action,' the appeals court said. Society spokesman Sukhcharan Singh said he hopes work on the temple can begin soon... But Supervisor Dennis Nelson, who voted against the temple in 2003, did not rule out appealing Tuesday's decision. 'I think the law is incorrect,' Nelson said about RLUIPA. 'What we've got is a law that allows a church to build any place without consideration for adjoining landowners.'"